Hannah Rae's Blog, page 9

A Birthday Remembrance

I went to Trader Joe's with my mom today and while my bill was something like $68.14, hers was only $19.86.

"Nineteen-eighty-six," the kind woman working the cash register said. "That was a good year!"

"It was," my mom agreed, and though she didn't elaborate, I knew she was referencing my brother, who was born on March 14, 1986.

This morning when I woke up, I was reflecting on the many gifts I gave my brother over the years. I am a gift giver. I really, really enjoy giving gifts to people I care about... which is why it's kind of funny to think about some of the birthday gifts I gave to Pip over the years.

One time, I gave him a blue can. I thought it was very cool. Useful? Not at all. But definitely cool. It was a can -- like a Campbell's Soup can -- with the lid pried partway off and then the whole thing was dipped in this shiny blue glaze. It was very artsy and only practical for storing something like pens. Pip thought it was one of the stupidest things ever. I have no idea where it is now, but I still to this day think it's cool.

Another time, I gave Pip some feet for his bed. I got them at IKEA and they made me laugh and when we were kids, our bed frames were metal and we were always stubbing our toes on them. Therefore, the orange, padded bird feet seemed like a generous offering: not only was I adding a hilarious component to his bedroom, I was also preventing future sore toes! Pip, however, was unimpressed... and, looking back on it, if I'm being completely honest, it was a very terrible gift.

The best birthday gift I ever gave to Pip was delivered in such a hilarious fashion (if I do say so myself). I strategized for weeks ahead of time. Possibly months ahead of time, because let's be honest: I love to plan things. Anyway. Let me share the tale...

Pip loved Ben Folds. I've never been a huge Ben Folds fan. There are a few songs of his that I like, such as "Army," but that's really the only one I can think of at the moment.

There was this one time that Phil and Brock and I saw Weezer and Ben Folds opened for him and I don't actually remember the Ben Folds part of the performance so I guess he was alright, but when Pip learned that I'd seen Ben Folds, he was kind of jealous. So for his birthday one year, I got him tickets to see Ben Folds with the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Right around the same time that I purchased these tickets, I got big into Dollar Shave Club. I'm someone who shaves her legs (and armpits, obviously) every single day. Until I discovered Dollar Shave Club, however, I was not someone who replaced her razor as often as she should. DSC changed that for me and introduced me to some fun shower products. Because I wanted to smell all the smells, but didn't necessarily need all the products, I purchased an assortment of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash for Pip. I put these in a box, hid the Ben Folds tickets underneath the manly-scented products, and set about building anticipation.

At least every other week, but usually more like every week, Pip and I would have a solid three-hour phone conversation. We talked about all the things most siblings talk about... along with all the things most siblings never broach. He was my best friend; he knew everything about me. My coworker Baustie once told me, "Hannah, you and your brother have a sibling relationship like none I've ever witnessed before." I liked that observation. I still do.

In the weeks leading up to Pip's birthday, I'd periodically mention how excited I was to give him his present. He'd guess at what it might be and I never gave anything away (even though I giggled incessantly about the very fun secret I was keeping).

When it finally came time to deliver the gift, I was incapable of holding still. I was dancing around my kitchen and laughing and just generally squirmy... and then Pip opened the box and found shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. And folks? I lost it. I mean, his face was awash with disgruntled disbelief. "You got me soap?" he said, utterly unimpressed. "Soap?"

I told him to lift up the tissue paper.

He did.

That's when the gift became The Gift of Gifts. If Pip were here today, I think he'd likely choose those Ben Folds tickets as his best birthday gift (given by his sister, anyway). Unfortunately, Pip isn't here today. And unfortunately, I no longer have the joy of purchasing gifts for him every March. But the thing I do have is the memories.

Thank goodness for the memories.

Concert Shoes

I was going to come up with a catchier title for this blog, but in a world where so much energy is put into preserving quality literature and eliminating censorship, who has the vigor for that? Not me.

Not tonight, anyway.

Tonight, the thing we need to talk about is concert shoes... which is a blog I meant to write ages ago, but forgot to do.

On the night of my art show, which was way back in November, my concert husband Phil was wearing the BEST shoes! "Where did you get those shoes?" I demanded, noticing his fancy foot attire right away.

"Amazon," Phil told me, and then promptly sent the link.

I bought a pair later that night and now Phil and I wear them when we go to shows together. They are our show shoes, if you will; we recently wore them to see G. Love at Hamilton Live in Washington, DC. I didn't write a blog about it because I forgot.

Here's something you might not know: Phil and I like to wear matching outfits when we go to shows. Jeans and flannels, tank tops and flip-flops... racerback dresses. Nah, I'm kidding about that last one. I will sometimes wear one of my bathing suit dresses to a summertime show, but Phil never has. He usually just wears a tank to match my color scheme.

Anyway, Phil and I are going to be seeing Moon Hooch in April and there's a chance we'll be wearing our matching concert shoes. There's a better chance we'll be wearing flip-flops. It really depends on the weather.

Okay. That's the end of this blog. I'm too tired to trek back to my bedroom, put on my matching concert shoes, and take a picture, but here are some shots of Phil's feet:

Excitement in the Bedroom!

My cat Petey-Pie Thomas (sometimes called Petey-Pie Tom-Tom) loves the wool mice that my mother knits, felts, and then stuffs with fluff and catnip. He hoards them... and he has a lot of them to hoard. Sometimes I will find him on my bed surrounded by four or five wool mice. He likes to hold them with his front paws and thump them with his back feet and drool. Petey also likes to carry them around with him; I think they have a nice mouthfeel. (Petey isn't old enough for wine, so he has to find a satisfying mouthfeel via felted mice.)

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Last night when Petey and I went to bed, he had a pale blue mouse with him, and so this morning when he woke me up at 6:06 because he was thumping and thumping at the foot of the bed, I got to wondering if he maybe discovered some other mice that had been batted under furniture in weeks past.

My mom sells these mice at Bantam Coffee Roasters (82 Steinwehr in Gettysburg) and then donates all the money to local animal shelters.

Legitimately, he was thumping this morning and really having a great time! I thought, I'll reach down there and grab that pale blue mouse and wriggle it around so Petey can chase its tail.

I reached down.

I grasped the mouse.

I realized that the mouse wasn't the type that my mother knitted and then felted and then stuffed with fluff and catnip.

Petey had found a real mouse, killed it, and brought it to bed.

To say that he was proud is an understatement. He had the pride of a lion this morning, and how flattered was I that his instinct was to bring such a gift to ME?

Despite the recent loss of an hour, I had little trouble jumping out of bed this morning. In fact, I even ended up attending a funeral among the daffodils before going to work!

Trivia Recap: 3/7 State of the Educated Friends Address

Ladies and Gentleman, I am here this evening to tell you that the State of the Trivia Team is strong.  We live in difficult times, where it can be hard to feel like we are all working together towards a common goal.  But to quote Victoria Coren Mitchell, the host of my very favorite game show , “Every corner of the political spectrum is brought together by the love of good trivia.  And if you are sitting there annoyed that I referred to a spectrum as having corners then you are exactly my kind of person.”  I would like to thank the Speaker of the House for inviting me to come speak to you tonight.  By which I mean that I would like to thank Hannah for telling me that I have to do this or she will exile me to North Korea with certain medical professionals that she is still unhappy with. 

As your elected official, I would like to tell you that I believe that children are our future.  That we should teach them well and let them lead the way. And that is why I am excited to tell you that Adam did indeed have his baby a couple of weeks ago.  (Presumably his wife had the baby and this isn’t a whole Junior situation, but I will admit I did not actually confirm that so anything is possible).  It sounds like Baby Oliver is healthy, at least enough that Adam could return to his hosting duties and it was nice to have him back.

Children are great, but high schoolers are truly important, and I am saying that not because most of our team is made up of high school teachers or because I have a tenth grader who lives with me, but because of the greatest television program of all time, Beverly Hills 90210.  You may recall that we chose it as the opening category after last week’s victory , and so we were well-prepared for the opening question which was, to be frank, disappointingly easy: “What is the name of the diner where the characters hang out?”

The Peach Pit hasn’t been the same since Laverne left

The rest of the first round was also solid.  There are several people in the stands tonight that I would like to recognize.  We have with us America’s Favorite Actor Tom Hanks, who we all know has starred in two separate movies with the word “Saving” in the title.  I would like to recognize three separate celebrities with birds as part of their names – Jay Leno, Eagle Eye Cherry, and Robin Givens, who made an appearance in trivia for the second week in a row, which is a little strange when you think about it.  I would also like to recognize Muhammad Ali and the baseball bats that both have museums dedicated to them on the banks of the scenic Ohio River in Louisville.

While there are so many strengths, I also think it is important to recognize that there are some weaknesses.  For example, it may be tempting to choose ‘Dog Breeds’ as your bonus category in the second round because you have a veterinarian on your team as well as two women who regularly buy dog breed encyclopedias.  And you may do this even though you always choose the audio category as your bonus category and that you are in fact able to recognize both Tom Petty’s “American Girl” and the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Californication” from the karaoke versions of those songs.  And then it might come back to haunt you when nobody on the team knows what that the American name for the dog that British people call Alsatians is German Shepherds.  And it would be a shame to lose those points even though you also knew what sundials are, that Picasso had a blue period, and that the Mets are the baseball team that play in the stadium named after the company with the stock ticker symbol C.  But the most important thing that we can do as Americans is to get right back up and keep on fighting despite these setbacks.

This is supposed to be “A German Shepherd wearing a Mets cap in the style of Pablo Picasso.”

At this point, I will say that one way that we can get back up is to keep ourselves replenished with energy and one good way to do that is to take advantage of the CrabFest that Fourscore Brewing is having this week and eating some delicious cream of crab soup in a bread bowl, which is what Hannah, Mary, and I all did.  I recommend it highly for those of you who are local and have time this weekend, and I am asking Congress and the Leedys to send me more of it now and to put more bread bowl soups on the menu.  Perhaps due to our newfound energy, we aced the halftime sheet.  We had to match TV shows with their creators, and we quickly knew a lot of these but as the whitest white people team we did have to guess more or less at random between the creators of “The Chi” and “Blackish”, but we did so correctly.  The other half asked us to recognize some photos that represented words in the NATO Phonetic alphabet, such as OSCAR the Grouch, DELTA airlines, and the province of QUEBEC.  I think that as Americans it is important that we uphold the sanctity of the NATO alphabet, and while some of my political opposition has suggested we leave the NATO alphabet behind, I think it is important that we stand strong with our allies and not use weird words like ‘Dorito’ and ‘Quesadilla’ and ‘Pterodactyl’ to try to get letters across when talking to telemarketers.

We thought we had faced struggles before but often the third round brings challenges that you didn’t think were possible.  Sure, you might feel good about yourself for knowing that ‘Breakout’ was both an Atari game and a hockey term, or that Kingston and Kingstown are both capital cities in the Caribbean, or even that Rob Thomas is both the name of the creator of Veronica Mars and the lead singer of Matchbox 20.  But then you hit a wall and nobody on your team can name even a single Rob Thomas solo song, let alone the one Adam is asking you about.  And you have no idea which actress was nominated for an Oscar for Lincoln thirty years after winning one for Places in the Heart even though you live in Gettysburg of all places.  And then they ask about the battle that took place on St. Crispin's Day and the Shakespeare play that discusses it and you totally blank, and you worry that your team is circling the drain.

Here's a simple truth: you can’t love your trivia team only when you win!

It gets even worse on the 6-4-2 question when you are asked about the seven letter word that is both the name of a retail chain and the S in CS Lewis.  But no matter how bleak things look, you should not listen to your teammate who thinks that the S stood for SamClub or the one who suggested Starbuk.  No, you should think logically and wait to gather enough information to find out that it is actually Staples.  Even though Staples is a very strange middle name, when you think about it.

Despite all of these adversities, real Americans would never give up.  That’s not what we do – we get back up!  Instead, we buckle down and know that a ‘stan’ is a term for a superfan that comes from an Eminem song and we also remember that Dido contributed vocals to that song.  And we remember that the big novel last year was The Heaven and Earth Grocery Shop, and not just because we are avid followers of  where it is about to compete but because we actually read the book.  And we know about the TV show Griselda even though none of us have ever seen it, as well as the character Echo from mythology.  Sure, you might not know that the Vikings are the NFL team that played in Metropolitan Stadium, but that will only cost you one point.  And because of all of these efforts we find ourselves in fourth place going into the final question, despite what had felt like a rough evening.

The final category was US Presidents, and this is when we really missed Ben’s presence, but the onset of baseball season means that his presence will be much more sporadic in the weeks to come.  You can see below that Hannah was very worried about the lack of Ben tonight.  You can also see some writings about her urine, but I honestly missed this conversation which is not something that I feel one moment of sadness about.

Hannah pees.

So we as Americans face one more challenge.  That challenge is simple: Who was the last US President that served in the Civil War?  Marc and Mary went back and forth and named a handful of presidents that seemed plausible and eventually settled on Harrison.  But just before we handed it in Mary said, “You know, my gut tells me that it's McKinley” so we switched answers and it turns out that Mary’s gut was absolutely correct!  You might think that she is just getting lucky or that her gut is getting unfair help from the aforementioned crab soup, but I want to assure you that it is because of Mary’s hard work and education that we succeeded at this point.  So we should thank the teachers for our success; mostly the ones on my team but also teachers in general! 

In the end, we came in second place.  That is why I think that the State of the Union Educated Friends is strong but could be stronger.  I would now like to hand over the stage to Smartacus, the team that actually won tonight, who has prepared the opposing team response.  Speaking on their behalf will be one of the pieces of cheesecake that they order every week that look so good and so big that we are always tempted even though we never get one.   

Life With Arlo: A Scary Emergency

My little Airedale Arlo hasn't been feeling well for the past few days. His appetite seemed to decrease with each passing day and yesterday he started vomiting. When he vomited again first thing this morning, turned his nose up at chicken baby food, and didn't urinate or defecate when he went outside this morning, I reached out to my dear friend Victoria, who just so happens to be a veterinarian.

Because Victoria is one of the kindest folks on the planet, she dropped what she was doing and met me at the animal hospital, where she examined Arlo and ran some bloodwork. I think we were both expecting him to simply need an antibiotic that would help with a GI issue, but when Victoria started looking at Arlo's bloodwork results, her opinion changed immediately. "We need to get him to the emergency clinic," she declared. "This isn't good."

Victoria called the emergency clinic in Frederick and spoke to the doctor. She explained the situation and stressed that Arlo needed to be seen quickly. She gave me the fiercest hug ever and sent us on our way, but continued to do research about his condition on her day off because she continued to send me information about it. She's just a gem of a person; I am insanely lucky to have her in my world.

In Frederick, the staff was so nice and patient. The doctor explained what Victoria already had, saying that the results of Arlo's bloodwork were indicative of something called Addison's disease. When I used to work as a veterinary technician, my boss at the time had a standard poodle with Addison's disease, so I am a little bit familiar with it. Until today, however, I did not realize that Airedales are prone to Addison's disease too.

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Although the official diagnosis isn't in quite yet, I did just talk to the doctor in Frederick and he said that it's looking very much like Addison's disease is the culprit. Fortunately, this is very treatable, but despite this, both Arlo and I -- along with the rest of our four-legged family -- would appreciate any positive energy you're willing to send his way. He may not be a perfect boy, but he is a really good boy, and as my friend Emily says, "That whooooooooosh of relief in the pit of your stomach" is a very real thing when you hear a bit of promising news in regards to a loved one. I experienced it a few minutes ago and now the tears keep happening. The house feels weirdly empty without Arlo and I can't wait to have him back among the chaos... ideally creating much of that chaos.

Trivia Recap: 2/29 - Leap Day Edition

Players: Mary, Hannah, Ben, Darren, Marc

Hint of the Day: USC Trojan

 

Welcome back, trivia blog fan!  My experiment with AI last week was fun and all, but it didn’t generate the buzz that we were hoping for.  Even Hannah’s begging and pleading for attention didn’t seem to get much feedback from you readers (including the “Educated Moms” as I have started calling them), so tonight I will try a different approach.  For reasons that I will let her write about, Hannah was cranky tonight and she plans to write some angry posts that will go viral because “Everyone likes it when you criticize people,” so tonight the kid gloves are off and I’m going to unleash on the world.  Starting with the person who recently told me they are called ‘kid gloves’ because they are made from the hide of baby goats and not because you are treating someone with the care you would treat a child.  That person gave me nightmares, dammit.

Adam was not hosting again tonight – we believe his wife may have had her baby – but it also wasn’t the way-too-fast host Michael from last week.  Instead it was Andrew, who Mary remembered hosting in a previous week and she was not happy about it because she thought he was waaaaayyy too uptight.  He actually added a lot more breaks but was pretty strict about the rules and definitely over-explained things.  I thought last week’s host was worse, but others thought this week’s was and we all agreed that we missed Adam.  Hannah also had a whole theory about how Michaels are always better than Andrews, although Michael Jackson may not have been better than Andrew Johnson.

As you might recall,  we won last week!  And the final question was about Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, so we chose that movie as our opening category for this week.  Only it turns out that we were not unique among Pour House teams, as another location’s winner chose ‘Pee Wee Herman’.  We were a little confused when the opening question was very explicitly about the TV show Pee Wee’s Playhouse and not the movie, which several of us had rewatched to prepare.  We were probably willing to just eat the question but the Street Sharks complained and it turns out that our host had just read the wrong question.  The correct question was “In addition to a small role as a reporter, this future SNL star co-wrote Pee Wee's Big Adventure.”  We had prepared for that exact question and easily knew it was Phil Hartman.

 

The rest of the first round went well, mostly because it was pretty easy.  We knew that OBX is short for Outer Banks, which one was the third Lord of the Rings film, that Gordie Howe scored a lot, and which Jane Austen novel features Mr. Darcy.  The only mistake we made was that Marc got DMX and Ja Rule mixed up like a fool (not that I know who either of those people are).  The round ended by asking who played Brenda Walsh on Beverly Hills 90210 and what her first TV role was.  Hannah clearly doesn’t pay attention to the opening credits because she thought the answer was “Shannon Dougherty.”  Yeesh.

In a blog where we are doing lots of criticizing, it seems fitting to feature Shando.

As always, we chose the audio clue for our bonus in round two, which featured three bands singing about Mexico.  I recognized James Taylor  because I’m old and Mary recognized Toby Keith  because she knows all that hick music.  We thought ZZ Top was the Allman Brothers which does make us all seem like a bunch of doofuses, but we got our wagering points.  Mostly it made me continue to try to figure out if I can get to Mexico on vacation at some point before my sabbatical ends.   The next question asked us what college Mark McGwire went to which we figured out was University of Southern California because of the hint of the day.  The next question was about the Airplane movies and it included asking for which pair of brothers directed it.  We were sitting at a table next to a group of marines who were very loud and often said their answers so they could be heard, which might have been more of an issue except that…well….they weren’t the brightest group.  And they were sure that the Coen Brothers directed Airplane, which would surely have been a very different movie.  And don’t call me Shirley.

We all knew about Isaac Newton’s third law of motion and that King Gillette was the founder of the company that invented the first disposable razor.  Marc even knew that Gillette Stadium is in Foxboro, because he’s the kind of lunkhead that knows that stuff.  You know, this whole thing where I am supposed to be criticizing everyone feels really stilted and isn’t a lot of fun.  Do you think I’ve created enough controversy to go viral, Hannah? 

As I said, Hannah was in a cranky mood because of a bad experience she had with a medical professional earlier today.  You can tell she was upset by reading her marginalia on the score sheet.  Although in another corner she wrote “Converse -> Hair” and I have no idea what that means.

No, not the part about fish.  That’s a story that very much amused Hannah but I have now heard her tell it seventeen times in 24 hours so you will have to ask her yourself.

The halftime sheet was pretty straightforward.  On the bottom we had to fill in the numbers that had been removed from certain book titles like _____ Years a Slave, Fahrenheit ____,  and ____ Little Pieces.  On the top half we had to recognize various celebrities whose initials are R.G.  Most were pretty straightforward like Ricky Gervais and Ruth Ginsburg, but a couple were tricky and we did not recognize Robin Givens even though I watched a lot of Head of the Class in my youth, and I still don’t know who the last guy is even after hearing the answer. But we were in first place after halftime, even if only by one point.

The third round was, as Ben put it, “Golden.”  Ben seemed to be in a particularly good mood tonight, at least up until the point when we pointed it out and said he is more fun when he is in a good mood to which he asked, “Isn’t everyone?”  Anyways, it was a good round.  It did take us all three clues to figure out they were talking about Auburn University, partly because even though I just read a book about the history of American Higher Education I could not name the first land grant university in the south.  (Even reading about it now I am not sure they are right, but no need to fight about that.)  We knew that the largest earthquake was in Chile and that Chile has five letters.  We also knew that Nancy Reagan started the ‘Just Say No’ campaign, as well as which two directors have directed Tom Hanks the most. 

The world don’t move to the beat of just one drum, but Just Say No.

The 6-4-2 question started with the hint that it was a basketball team that shared its name with a male ballet dancer.  Ben really wanted to put ‘Knickerbocker’ and I was tempted to put ‘Maverick’ and Hannah probably couldn’t name an NBA team to save her life.  (Hannah here! I did suggest "The Bulls," fyi.) As soon as Marc suggested ‘Cavalier’ we all knew that was probably right, but decided to play it safe since we were in the lead.  The four point clue confirmed this answer, though.   

The fourth round started by asking us to complete the phrase “To Err is Human, to forgive ______” and I correctly thought it was “Divine” but was surprised that nobody else knew that saying even though Mary somehow knew it was by Alexander Pope.  She also immediately knew the name of the musical solo act who sang that song ‘Fireflies’ even though we did not know who duetted on their other big song – Ben had me put K€$ha, which I did but it turned out to be wrong. 

Another question asked which animated tv show had the characters drinking Alamo Beer and we just assumed it had to be King of the Hill and we were right, which is good because we had a lot of points riding on it.  We also correctly identified three things with the word ‘Lonely’ in their title.  ( Lonely Island,   Only the Lonely,  and Lonely Planet )  Going into the final question the scores worked out so that we could wager four and guarantee ourselves a victory if we got it right and no worse than third if we got it wrong, so that’s what we did even though the category was Board Games, which we felt pretty good about even though Hannah has made it very clear that she hates Scrabble.  Luckily, the question was not about Scrabble but asked what the minimum number of questions you would need to answer correctly to win Trivial Pursuit is.  Hannah is planning to play Trivial Pursuit at her birthday party next month, and coincidentally we knew that the answer was seven.  So we won for the second week in a row!  And for next week we chose Beverly Hills 90210 as our first round question and I will have to pretend like I don’t know as much about it as I do if I want to look respectable. Hopefully by then Hannah will have calmed down although she keeps sending me angry venting texts hours later, so I’m not going to hold my breath.  I will close tonight with a few AI generated knock knock jokes about the highlights of our evening. 

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Pee Wee.

Pee Wee who?

Pee Wee Herman, hoping this joke doesn't end up in the playhouse's secret word jar!

 

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Mediocre.

Mediocre who?

Mediocre doctor, reporting for duty! You won’t feel better, but hey, at least you'll get some subpar bedside manner!

 

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Brenda.

Brenda who?

Brenda Walsh! Oops, wrong character, but hey, at least it's still 9021-oh so funny!

 

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Eggplant.

Eggplant who?

Eggplant wants to know if the uptight trivia host will crack a smile or if they're too busy checking their rulebook for vegetable-related infractions!

My Tank Top Collection

Last night, I received a text message that said, "You seem to really love the tank top." It's an apt observation because I really and truly do love the tank top. And I have a bunch of them. In fact, after a rough count last night, I was rather surprised to learn that I probably own around 60 tank tops. This, I realize, is excessive... but I just like them so much! And I literally wear one almost every single day.

One of my favorite tank tops is available for purchase from ,Design By Humans . It actually incorporates a piece of cut-paper art that I made for my friend Heather: an octopus and a mermaid. Pip then did all the necessary things to format the design for a t-shirt/tank top. I bought that shirt for a bunch of my friends, along with some other Sis 'n' Pip creations, and everyone wore them to the fence-painting party that celebrated his life one year after his death. It was a good day. Emotionally exhausting, but good. And there was an upside-down rainbow... without rain. That was Pip working his magic.

I've got another octopus or two, because we all know how much I love octopuses.

I've got a periodic table tank top that I periodically wear on Thursdays. This comes in handy for trivia sometimes -- like when there's a question about the periodic table.

I have a tank top with a dog wearing a cone on his head... but the cone is actually a lamp. Isn't that funny?

I've also got a tank top with the pixelated number eight on it. My mom gave it to me for Christmas because, as you probably remember from the other day's blog about song lyrics that make me smile, my favorite number is eight. (That's also very evident in Just Whistle, I believe.)

I bought a tank top with a maple leaf on it because it reminds me of Bas and Lucy and the magic maple on Sycamore Drive. For the same reason, I bought a tank top with a guitar that becomes a tree and has a bunch of birds as its leaves.

I have a tank top that my best friend Kathy bought for me. It's got two giraffes riding a tandem because Kathy and I grew up riding my family's tandem. It had terrible brakes and was very heavy, but it was also incredibly fun and grass-stain green. Now that I think about it... I might've put that tandem in Like A Flip Turn.

I've got a tank top that says "Edit or Regret It," which is perfect for school on peer-editing days.

The bottom line? I have a lot of tank tops. Plain tank tops, too... but they're not especially fun to write about it.

Anyway, that's today's post. Now you have some insight regarding my tank top collection. I need to change into my periodic table tank and head over to Fourscore for some trivia.

Byeeeee!

Song Lyrics that Make Me Happy

First and foremost, I need to recognize John Craigie because is there a better line than "I can't sleep with Emma anymore. / She got too many chickens in her backyard"? The answer, quite obviously, is a resounding "No!" In addition to that particular line, however, "Laurie Rolled Me a J" is an overall awesome song; many of its lyrics are enjoyable.

Dead Man Winter sings my current favorite song, "Red Wing Blue Wing," and my favorite lyric found there is definitely "I'm full of charm and I'm full of whiskey / And I'm full of shit, most of the time." Now, I'm full of honesty when I say that I am fully capable of listening to this song on repeat, like ten or eleven times in a row, without getting tired of it.

As a teacher, the line "Give the teachers a banker's salary and see how that goes" from Chadwick Stokes and State Radio's song "Our Lives, Our Time" always makes me smile. I wish I could have a banker's salary for a week. Hell... I'd be happy to have a banker's salary for a day!

"Next thing I remember, / I was barefoot in December" is a line that appears in The Turnpike Troubadours' song "The Housefire." I like it a lot because the rhyme is so good. It also puts you right there in the mess of the family's night. I love it.

I will always and forever be a sucker for Dispatch's "Bullet Holes" -- especially the live version found on Gut the Van -- because I love that line "My fingers collapse around my pen / Like a soldier tryin' to hold up his flag." I mean, how great is that? A pen is as powerful as a flag; you can do so much with it and your words can stand for so much. I just really appreciate that line.

If you've ever read anything I've ever written (fiction, I mean), you'll know that I really enjoy associating characters with smells and tastes. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I love this line in Caamp's song "Books": "Tastes like candy and cigarettes / And at that point, I hadn't tasted anything better yet." Honestly, though... "Books" is literally riddled with phenomenal lines. Like, "Then she giggles like a bubble bath." That's beautiful. I love that. I dare say, "I love [it] all the way."

"Big Parade" by The Lumineers is another song that I really don't ever get tired of and I'm gonna give you an entire stanza for this one. Ready? "Catholic priest, Catholic priest in a crisis / Torn between romance and Jesus, who will win the civil war? / And he says, 'I'm in love, I'm in love with a woman / Yes, this is my confession. I'm leaving. I can't be a priest anymore." Total The Thorn Birds vibes, am I right?! Gosh, I love that.

Tyler Childers is another master of words. I especially appreciate "My mind's a mile a minute / And my thoughts, they bark like hounds." I fell in love with "Universal Sound" the instant I heard that lyric.

I'm going to stop there because that's eight songs and eight is my favorite number, but if you'd like to listen to these songs, I put them on a playlist for you. Here's the link: THE LINK !

Not this week...

...but next week! That's when Time Jumps will be available to the masses. Let me tell you why you should be excited and what you might want to do in preparation.

REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

New characters! You'll get to meet the Kincaid crew. My prediction is that either Emory or Milo will be your favorite character, although you may love Cohen more than you're expecting to love him. New setting! If you've read The One You're With, you'll be familiar with Callensburg, but this is the first book that actually features Callensburg as a setting. It has cobblestone streets and a great ice cream venue. I think you'll enjoy it as a whole. Familiar faces! There's a very minor character from Kick it One More Time (Tessa) who serves as a slightly-more-important minor character in Time Jumps. You'll also be able to spend a few pages with the Abbott brothers at Bottomless Joe's... but I'm not going to tell you how Lake Caywood managed to wriggle its way into this particular plot.

THINGS TO DO IN PREPARATION:

Read or listen to The Way Back if you haven't already. I just think you'll appreciate Emory even more if you know how he's impacted Ansel's life. Eat at Garryowen in Gettysburg. Essentially, the fictional Irish tavern in fictional Callensburg (it's called Rory O'Sullivan's) is the real-life Garryowen in real-life Gettysburg.

Alright. That's all I've got for today.

Trivia Recap: 2/22

Team: Marc, Darren, Mary, Hannah

Hint of the Day: a light bulb

Hey, guess what!  We remembered to take a team photo this week, so you don’t need to worry about the AI machines taking over the photos!

You do, however, need to worry about the AI machines taking over the writing of the blog post, as I didn’t really feel like doing much writing myself and everyone insists that I do it.  I enjoy it most nights but as far as I can tell Hannah and Mary are the only people who read the blog – they both swear that their moms do, but I am not sure that is all that much better (no offense, Moms!)  So I gave some of the pertinent details to ChatGPT and let it take over.   It describes the first half like this:

In the cozy ambiance of a local bar, amidst the pitter-patter of raindrops, four teachers transformed into trivia titans, clinching victory in a heated competition. Mary, Marc, Darren, and Hannah, armed with their collective knowledge and unwavering camaraderie, conquered an array of brain-teasers, proving that intellect knows no bounds.

The night was set against a backdrop of rain, lending an air of coziness to the bar's atmosphere. As the quartet delved into the trivia fray, their minds were fueled not only by their collective expertise but also by the tantalizing taste of IPA beers. With each sip, they found themselves buoyed by the hoppy flavors, fortifying their resolve to emerge triumphant.

The trivia questions spanned a diverse array of topics, from pop culture to historical milestones. As aficionados of the TV show Smallville, Mary and Marc deftly navigated queries about the iconic series, seamlessly recalling pivotal plotlines and character arcs. Darren, with his passion for sports history, proved instrumental in tackling questions about the legendary 'Miracle on Ice' hockey game, showcasing his prowess beyond the confines of the classroom. Meanwhile, Hannah, with her encyclopedic knowledge of cinema, effortlessly dissected questions pertaining to the trilogy of films that included "Glass" and "Split," leaving competitors in awe of her cinematic acumen.

Amidst the whirlwind of questions, there was a bittersweet undertone to the evening. As the rain continued to cascade outside, the absence of their friend Ben was keenly felt. Ben, a fellow educator and trivia enthusiast, was unable to join them that night, leaving a void in their team dynamic. Nevertheless, his spirit lingered amongst them, serving as a silent source of inspiration as they pressed onward.

One particularly memorable question revolved around the iconic Rolex logo—a crown symbolizing luxury and prestige. With a collective nod of recognition, the team swiftly provided the correct answer, further solidifying their lead in the competition. It was moments like these that underscored the strength of their camaraderie and the depth of their shared knowledge.

This great (and mostly accurate) description doesn’t include anything about the audio clue, which turned out to be three songs with the word “Light” in the titles.  One of the songs was by Madonna, but it was not this song that I asked ChatGPT to write about light in the style of Madonna:

In a room, so dim and dark, I'm searching for a little spark.

But in the shadows, there's a gleam, A shining beacon, like a dream.

It's a flicker, a tiny glow, But it's enough to make me know,

That even in the darkest night, There's a glimmer of hope, shining bright.

Lightbulb, shining in the night, You're my beacon, my guiding light.

With your brilliance, you illuminate, Every corner, every fate.

So here's to you, oh light divine, In your glow, we'll always shine.

You're more than just a bulb, you see, You're a symbol of possibility.

The half time sheet was quite fun as it gave us ten different photos of toys from each of the decades of the 20th century and asked us to match the toy with the decade.  Or, in limerick form, it was like this:

In the early 1900s, oh so fine,

The Teddy Bear became a design.

From Roosevelt's affection,

To global connection,

The bear's popularity did shine.

 

Raggedy Ann dolls, with charm and grace,

In the early 1900s found their place.

With yarn hair so red,

And stories widespread,

Their timeless appeal we embrace.

 

Slinky slinked in during the forties,

A toy full of wiggles and glories.

Down stairs it would glide,

With a graceful slide,

Bringing joy to so many stories.

 

Barbie burst onto the scene,

In the fifties, she reigned supreme.

With fashion and flair,

She was beyond compare,

A sixties icon, a dream.

 

In the seventies, Star Wars took flight,

With Jedi and Sith in an epic fight.

With lightsabers aglow,

And the Force to bestow,

It captured imaginations, oh so bright.

 

Cabbage Patch Kids, oh so sweet,

In the eighties, they couldn't be beat.

With rosy cheeks aglow,

And names to bestow,

Their popularity was a feat.

 

X-Box stormed in during the nineties,

With gaming experiences so weighty.

From Halo to Gears,

It brought cheers and tears,

A console that gamers found mighty.

We were worried about the third round going into it although it ended up not being all that bad.   All of the correct answers are in the following lyrics to a song that our AI overloads think is in the style of Reel Big Fish, since they are Hannah’s favorite band:

(Verse 1) Well, I met Timothee Chalamet down by the bay, He said, "Let's sail on 'The Golden Lady' today." With Coco Chanel by my side, feeling so fine, We set sail, leaving all our worries behind.

(Chorus) Tiny dancer, twirlin' in the moonlight, Sailing with style, everything's just right. With Timothee, Coco, and the Golden Lady, We're living life like a reel big party!

(Verse 2) On the deck, under the stars, we dance and sway, With the sea breeze blowing all our cares away. Timothee's charisma, Coco's flair, On this boat, we're a fashion-forward pair.

(Pre-Chorus) With brushstrokes of joy, like an impressionist scene, We're painting memories, living the dream.

(Chorus) Tiny dancer, twirlin' in the moonlight, Sailing with style, everything's just right. With Timothee, Coco, and the Golden Lady, We're living life like a reel big party!

(Bridge) We'll sail the seven seas, no destination in mind, With our spirits high and the music intertwined. Tim, Coco, and me, we're a sight to see, Living out our dreams, wild and free!

(Chorus) Tiny dancer, twirlin' in the moonlight, Sailing with style, everything's just right. With Timothee, Coco, and the Golden Lady, We're living life like a reel big party!

(Outro) So raise your glasses high, let's make a toast, To adventure, to friendship, to what we love most. With Timothee, Coco, and the Golden Lady, We'll keep on dancing, feeling oh so crazy!

I haven’t yet mentioned that Adam wasn’t hosting tonight for some reason that wasn’t clear to us.  The new guy moved VERY quickly and also seemed to make the questions a lot more complicated than they were.  He did not rephrase all of the questions as knock knock jokes, but if he did then the fourth round would have sounded a little something like this:

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Clyde.

Clyde who?

Clyde Drexler dribbling down the court with finesse!

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Chuck.

Chuck who?

Chuck Woolery, ready to make a Love Connection!

 

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Shasta.

Shasta who?

Shasta, like the soda, but Mount Shasta's got the real fizz!

 

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Communism.

Communism who?

Communism... and before you know it, everyone's sharing the punchlines!

There was also a category called “Math Stuff”.  I was running a little late tonight so wasn’t there when they chose the bonus categories, and was only a little offended that Mary chose 1980’s TV instead of Math even though if I’m being honest I know way too much about both things.  In any event, the math question was “What is the operation called when you take an integer and multiply it by all of the other positive integers less than it?”  I answered “Factorial!” and was amused by the way I wrote that answer, but nobody else seemed to notice or even care. 

When all is said and done we were in third place behind both the RailSplitters and Street Sharks going into the final question.  The category was movie quotes and the question was “What 1980’s movie ends with a scene of the title character watching a movie of their own life and saying ‘I don’t need to watch this, Dot.  I lived it!’?”  Now, if you are my exact age then this is like the easiest trivia question ever.  But it turns out that if you are ten years younger or older this is not such an easy question. 

So we won!  There was also a double tie breaker where not-Adam made people guess his birthday to break the tie but I didn’t pay a lot of attention.  Let me hand it over to Chat-GPT for the conclusion.

As the night drew to a close and the final scores were tallied, it became evident that victory was within their grasp. With a triumphant cheer, Mary, Marc, Darren, and Hannah celebrated their hard-earned success, their bond forged not only by their love for trivia but also by their mutual respect and friendship.

In the annals of bar trivia lore, their victory would be remembered as a testament to the power of collaboration, the thrill of intellectual pursuit, and the enduring bonds of friendship. And as they bid farewell to the dimly lit confines of the bar, their hearts were lightened by the knowledge that, on that rainy night, they had emerged victorious as a team of teachers turned trivia champions.

PS – A tip of the hat to Melissa from the Street Sharks, who in her professional life has been running lots of sessions about the use of Generative AI in higher education, and has been an inspiration to this post.  Also: she’s about to have a baby!  Yay!