Happy New Year!

Auld Lang Syne

Should old acquaintances be forgotten,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintances be forgotten,
And days of long ago !

Chorus:
For old long ago, my dear
For old long ago,
We will take a cup of kindness yet
For old long ago.

We two have run about the hillsides
And pulled the daisies fine,
But we have wandered many a weary foot
For old long ago.

We two have paddled (waded) in the stream
From noon until dinner time,
But seas between us broad have roared
Since old long ago.

And there is a hand, my trusty friend,
And give us a hand of yours,
And we will take a goodwill draught (of ale)
For old long ago!

And surely you will pay for your pint,
And surely I will pay for mine!
And we will take a cup of kindness yet
For old long ago!

Another Tradition ~ Too Often Forgotten

I know that Thanksgiving has come and gone.
Christmas is now a just the picture of Uncle Oscar's Santa's hat tumbling into the punch...
but if we received a gift, it would be nice to write a note of gratitude.
(NOT an email, Brian!)

December 26....and all through the house....not a creature was conscious...

Who feels like this? Raise your hand!

Give Santa Some Credit

Is anyone else worried that Santa's credit cards might be maxed out?
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that his plastic holds up better than the average old guy wearing a red suit.

Families Are ~

The Little Murphs
Parker
Cooper
Cousin Connor with Griffin

Holiday Patience

Stay calm

Have lots and lots of patience...

And Keep your cell phone handy to dial 911...



(picture from AP wire photo)

Rejections of All Kinds - Should We Hold Grudges?

I've been known to have a pretty healthy ego ~ not conceited, of course, but confident in my never-ending talents and flawless abilities. Just about everything in my life seems perfect, from my faultless way I fold laundry to my error-free bookkeeping. So when I get rejected, my inner self is aghast with shock!
In the past week, a store clerk handed me back my American Express with a disgusted look that said, "You are a loser"...when in fact, the magnetic strip had been chipped just enough to dis-allow my credit card authorization. I handed it back to him and told him to hand-key in the numbers and he acted like I had asked him to run an uphill marathon on one leg! But I still felt kinda rejected.

I can remember my first BIG disappointment (let's not use the work "rejected" anymore) ~ I was in high school knowing that my future was in being a comedic actress. I had applied to one school, Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Denison is a wonderful school that had a top-notch fine liberal arts/theater program. Many well-known actors had graduated from Dennison. (John Davidson, Hal Holbrook..even Bobby Rahal!)
To be considered, I had to be personally interviewed as well as submit an audio tape of me acting out a scene in a play. I coerced my boyfriend, John Lampe, to read the scene with me. We practiced and practiced until we sounded perfect. I sent in the tape and waited. Every day I would come home from school expecting a marching band to greet me with the assumed news that I would not only be accepted to the college, but probably star as the lead in their fall play production.
So, at this point you know that I received a crappy little letter saying "you may want to consider blogging for the rest of your life because you are not Denison material"...

I have worked at least 59 jobs now and have only received a handful of letters
with the news, "Your skills are not a fit with our organization's goals"...but each one is like a dagger piercing the heart (not that a dagger has ever really entered any part of my body so I don't know why I said that).

I see people pick up their ringing phone, check the caller ID and not answer it. Naturally, the person on the other end is unaware that they have been blown off. I know that NO ONE has EVER done that to ME. Well, almost never.

I was dining at a 4 star restaurant about a month ago when I caught a glimpse of a friend of mine. This is a woman who would knock over the Pope to answer her phone. I thought that I would play a joke on her by calling her cell phone with the pretense of asking her to help me with my disabled car. Well, the phone must have rung because she picked it up from out of her purse...looked at the caller ID and placed it back in her purse!
WHAT? She knew it was me! Of course, confident Peg thought that she must know other Peggy Murphys ~ because surely, she would take MY call!
I promptly stormed over to her table and threw my bill on her salad plate and dramatically stomped off. I know now why Denison discarded my college application ~ when I made my theatrical dining room exit, I knocked into a busboy with a tray of glasses that came ultimately and in slow motion, came clattering to the floor.

I've had my baked goods snubbed at the charity bizarre and that hurts...
I've been the second one chosen when picking teams for sporting events...
I've had magazines send me emails saying my articles will be "filed for future consideration"..
I've had my poorly wrapped Christmas present be the last one chosen at a Christmas exchange...
I've had my dog Bailey wag his tail at strangers more than at me...
But I'm OK with all of that....

But the worst was yet to come. I've asked my nephew, Connor, for a year now, to come visit me for a weekend. I have bribed him with offerings like payment for yet another set of tennis lessons...or take him to Paris...or buy him three x-boxes (whatever THEY are). He told me, "I can't, Aunt Peggy. I need to trim my toenails"...or some other such excuse. But, that's ok...I know he loves me.

But what I think really bothers me...is that Denison University offered my boyfriend a scholarship from that audio tape we made! Yep...for THAT, I hold a grudge.

Headlines That Make You Wonder How The Editor Got the Job

I would think that newspaper writer-type jobs would be hard to acquire because of the competition. One writing headlines for a paper should maybe "have a clue". Well, maybe the following samples of journalism at it's best was just a lone incident on an "off" day for someone ~

* Deaf mute gets new hearing in killing (Beltone,maybe?)
* Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers (that’s pretty severe punishment!)
* Safety experts say school bus passengers should be belted (aw, c’mon!)
* Iraqi head seeks arms (well, I’ve gotta "hand" it to them)

Grammar often botches other headlines ~

* Eye drops off shelf (40 "lashes" to the one who pushed it off)
* Squad helps dog bite victim (What are they teaching in squad school these days?)
* Dealers will hear car talk at noon (I don’t care if the car can sing the National Anthem, I just want it to give me better gas mileage!)
* Enraged cow injures farmer with ax (Isn't that over-kill? A mere head butt might have worked)
* Lawmen from Mexico barbecue guests (what ever happened to good ole wiennies?)
* Miners refuse to work after death (wow..now that’s an extended retirement)
* Two sisters reunite after eighteen years at checkout counter (I wonder if they were arguing over what to buy for dinner that night?)

Once in a while, a botched headline takes on a meaning opposite from the one
intended ~

* Nicaragua sets goal to wipe out literacy (like newspaper editors?)

Sometimes newspaper editors state the obvious ~

* If strike isn't settled quickly it may last a while
* War dims hope for peace (really?)
* Smokers are productive, but death cuts efficiency (DOUBLE really?)
* Cold wave linked to temperatures (NOW I am informed!)
* Blind woman gets new kidney from dad she hasn't seen in years (no comment)
* Man is fatally slain (yes, but did he DIE?)
* Something went wrong in jet crash, experts say (and EXPERTS should know!)

Hmmm...Maybe someone is spiking the coffee in the newsroom?

UGH

This is how my throat feels today.

The Little Things in Life

Why is it that I let the small things in life bother me so much?
Why do I want to throw the empty toilet paper roll all the way to Istanbul when I have had to be the sole heir to the responsibility of replacing the toilet paper?
Maybe it's because I must maintain a certain amount of decorum, maturity and professionalism ten hours out of the day so in the privacy of my home, I can go ballistic over being stuck with this seemingly thankless job.
(Author's note: My age was recently compared to Joy Philbin, who is Regis's wife...and she is TEN YEARS older than me ~ thus, I am acting 66 instead of my true young 56 years of age)

Back to toilet paper ~ there can be 28 people in and out of the bathroom and it's ME who is left with one pitiful lone sheet stuck on the nearly naked roll. How hard can it be to reach around and put another roll on the spindle? You're just sitting there "passing the time" anyway!

Even thought I feel like a martyr in having this enormous responsibility, I think I have become a wee bit obsessed about this "commission" that has been un-sanctimoniously awarded to me and am taking it too seriously.
Recently I have been taking out a new roll and installing it before the current roll is even 20% used. I can recognize the quality and number of plies in three seconds by a mere quick touch.

Now after I have installed the new roll, I place the old roll with a good 22 uses left in it's T-P life, on top ~ then I feel like I am a-"head" (that's "john" vernacular) of my job as a professional T-P installer.

Sadly, I have been know to execute this same action when I visit friends homes, stranger's houses, restaurants, gas stations and rest stops. Some just don't understand.

Let's face it, I have become the Queen of T-P and it can be a "royal" pain in the tush!
I want to relinquish my crown!

Pleeze...someone help me out here...I'm starting to look "flushed" a lot.