Awards, Movie Review and One Wacked Out Dream!

I've been doing something I excel at (which is procrastination) this week but now, figure I best do this or I am liable to forget it completely.

What's that, you ask? Well, earlier this past week I was given two awards and at the time, I didn't have time to do a post about them, figuring I would put it off a day and then, that day became two days, then four and now, before it becomes about six days, I figure I better move my fanny and "Git 'er done!"

So, with that said, if you glance over at my sidebar, you can see I did get them added there -got that much accomplished -but just needed to get to doing the acknowledgements and now, here I am -finally -ready to do that!

First off, here's this award -given to me by Mary Anne The Smalltown RN at A Place I Call Home and it's the
Van Gogh's Ear Award.
Now, here's what Mary Anne told me about this award too:


This is the Van Gogh's Ear Award as created by Roger of Idaho Photo This is what he wrote about the Van Gogh's Ear Award: "Every year I like to make up a award and hand it out to people that make a difference in the blogsphere. I like to make it a award for all to enjoy and pass out if one so wants to, I just ask if your going to give it out to link back to me as the creator of the Van Gogh's Ear Award." Inspiration of the Van Gogh's Ear Award "You may know the story of Vincent Van Gogh a well known artist in history. Although a brilliant painter in his later years went quite insane he received the nickname of fou roux ("the redheaded madman"). The most bazaar of Vincent's behavior is when he cut off the lower part of his own left ear lobe, which he wrapped in newspaper and gave to a prostitute named Rachel in the local brothel, asking her to "keep this object carefully. After this he suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness, which led to his suicide July 29, 1890 he was 37 years old. His works of art are priceless." The point of this award "We are all artist in are own way be it art, photography, writing, philosophy, comedy, blogging and we all go a little crazy sometimes. But if you ever feel so crazy to cut off your ear and give it to a prostitute 'Seek Help'!"
Of course, I am supposed to pass this lovely award on to other bloggers I feel are deserving of recognition too now. With a great deal of trepidation I'm going to put my life, reputation and whatever else I can think of, at stake and give this to Suldog, Vic, Lind, and Barb. No need to explain my choices there for this award if you aleady read their blogs and if you don't, well go check them out and find out for yourself!

The second award I received came to me from Sweetie -and she's not a total newbie to blogging but she hasn't been around "forever" here like the bloggers above who I gave the Van Gogh's Ear award to. Sweetie has had a really rough time over the past year -her husband of many years died suddenly just before Christmas and a year ago, her oldest daughter was murdered -and they have yet to find the person who took her daughter's life. Add to that, Sweetie is -like me -from the Keystone State, a big Penn State fan too and just a lovely lady with a lot of varied interests as well as a large family she adores.

The award from Sweetie is this one -

And, here are the instructions that go with this lovely award:

Chris of Welcome Friends to to Chris's Corner presented this award to me. The award focuses on the friendships that blossom here in blogland. Blogs who receive this award are 'exceedingly charming' say its authors. This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."So according to the rules I must mention eight more bloggers with whom to share this with award.

I'm passing this one on to the following bloggers: Sandi, Mary, Maggie, Debo Blue, Keith, David, Joceyln, and Terri -all terrific bloggers who really deserve extra recognition for all their efforts in the blogosphere!

Next, I'm gonna tell you that last night, Mandy and I had a little get-together with several ladies -all friends of my daughter -where we met at Hedges Restauarnt for a nice evening meal and then, proceeded to go see the movie, currently on the big money amker's list for recent releases, "Marley and Me."

Now, since Mandy and I both read the book, "Marley and Me" by columnist John Grogan, who writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer, we knew the baic plot to this movie. Since we both had loved the book -and if you haven't read it by now, by all means, get yourself a copy as soon as possible because it is definitely one book I would recommend to readers of either sex, of all ages too! Yes, it is really a terrific read that will have you laughing, howling actually, one minute and in tears the next. A must read for all animal lovers and yes, I know there are a whole b unch of animal lovers out there in the blogosphere too!

The movie was good, funny, sad -all those things. Not necessarily material for an Oscar or any high faluting award like that but it did make for an enjoyable evening at the "theater." A nice movie and one that you can take your kids to see without worrying about tons of sex and all sorts of unnecessary violence. Not as good as the book was but then, how often does one find a movie that is as good as the book was? Not very often, for sure, but it still wasn't a huge disappointment at any rate and, in the defense of the movie, it would I think have been virtually impossible for them to include every single thing Marley did in the book in the movie. But anyway, if you have a chance, go see it for a nice evening of light-hearted entertainment but also, be sure to take your kleenex or hankie along too!

Now the last thing on my list -a really wacked out dream -was something that happened to me early this evening when I fell asleep in the lovely recliner here in the living room. When I woke up from this dream, I was still tired (nothing unusual about that for me,) frustrated, angry, and very, very sad -all at the same time.

This dream was all about people in my family -immediate and extended. The scene was some park, some place -I have no idea where in blazes this place might be located or even if it actually exists -and it was our family reunion being held at this unknown location.

What's so weird about that? Well, let me explain further!

First off, almost all my cousins from my Mom's side of the family were in attendance. But only a very few of them ever actually talked to me during this dream as they were all busy gabbing with each other and frequently seemed to be casting me some really dirty looks. I don't know what I'd done to tick them off but it must have been something pretty drastic.

Then, there were also numerous folks from my family there who haven't been in attendance at our family get-together for many years mainly because it would be impossible for them to attend. Why? Well, because those people are all dead!

As I wandered around this park, seeing this or that cousin or aunt or uncle, and trying to get a chance to talk to them, the only ones who did speak to me were a little girl named "Hannah" whose mother, my cousin Lori, was supposed to be this child's grandmother. What's so unusual about that is the fact my cousin Lori has two sons but so far, has no grandchildren and I'm wondering if she's harboring some deep dark secret from the rest of the family or what because how did I manage to know this was her granddaughter and that her name is "Hannah?" Go figure that one out. Mandy says I should call Lori and tell her that the cat is now out of the bag and she needs to come clean with us. I can just see the look of shock on her face if I do that too!

I was supposed to be the one in charge of this gathering -seeing to it that everyone was fed, happy, etc., but everywhere I looked, someone was mad at me for something but they wouldn't say what it was and I was running all over the place trying to find things they were asking for -more pasta salad, burgers, desserts, utensils to eat with, the location of the bathrooms -everything! So I was running -yes me, running -and really getting winded and very tired (and cranky too) because it was making my back and legs ache like a freaking toothache too!

The clincher though was when I was in an anteroom to the bathroom -which I had somehow managed to locate -and my one aunt (one of those deceased individuals) was in there and she reached over, tapped me on my knee and told me that I might want to know that the day after this reunion, ALL my cousins were going to be online, talking about this reunion and how to make it better and what mistakes I had made! Ok, but why hadn't anyone mentioned this to me and when I asked her which messenger service they were going to use, her answer was just simply that all I needed to do was key in the word "reunion" to the internet and it would automatically take me to where my family was going to be having this big conflab -all about me and my lousy job I had done organizing this damned reunion!

So, I set out then trying to find this or that cousin but as I did that, each of them was leaving -getting into their cars and flat out ignoring me as I ran after each car, calling to them! Ray was there with his wife and their son and Gary was in a wheelchair but I have no idea why. (Near as I know, my cousin Ray's son, Gary, has nothing wrong with him requiring a wheel chair." My Uncle Cookie and Uncle Ralph were trying to tend to some family member who was sobbing and pointing at me but when I asked them what was wrong -neither would answer me. Probably because I don't know if ghosts or dead people can talk in dreams. Can they? You tell me.

Then, when finally I couldn't find any more family members -just all strangers -I started looking for Mandy and the grandchildren as I just wanted to get out of this place and go home. Remember this was a strange, unknown place to me but it was located about 80 miles -one way -from home and I then learned from some park official that my daughter and grandkids and gone off and left me there, saying I could hitch hike or find a ride home somehow! So there I was, walking down a steep hill, in spike heels no less -no damned wonder my back, legs AND FEET were hurting and boy, was I ever ticked off at Mandy for leaving me to walk home -all 80 miles, ya know! The nerve of some people's children! Really! And, to add insult to injury there, I was also wearing a suit -yes, a suit -with a super tight skirt too! To a reunion? How nutso is that? B ear in mind, it has been a goodly number of years since I have donned a suit and even longer since my feet have slid into a pair of spike heels too!

About that time, along comes another park official, looking for ME, and wanting to know where the check was that I was supposed to turn over to him for the use of the park and for the meal! About that time, I started to cry, and cursing too, at my cousin Julie, who had actually set this place up for us but who had never given me a check to pay for the event! Where in blazes Julie was supposed to get the money to pay for this -and why -is something totally beyond my wild dream imagination to fathom too!

The clincher though I think may have been while talking to the park official and trying to explain to him that no one had given me a check or even told me I was going to be responsible for paying for this, and this park official then commented to me on my beautiful hair -which was all a white-blonde shade -and he was asking me what bottle I had used to get it that color! What the heck was that all about? My hair might have some grey in it but it is far from being white and I haven't put any type of hair coloring in my usually short, curlyish tresses in well over 30 years now! Yet another "go figure" there I guess.

I don't usually dream all that much and this was the first time, ever, that I had a dream while sleeping in the recliner chair. Maybe it was that chair that did me in? Do ya think that could be the reason. I've never had such a weird dream that involved virtually every member of my extended family -including members no longer with us and those, who have yet to come about either!

Matter of fact, most of my dreams -when I do dream these days -are about working now or again at the truckstop where I used to be employed and trust me when I tell you, those dreams are really the stuff of which nightmares are made because they always involved me trying to wait on a kazillion people, all at once, and not being able to get my legs to move fast enough!

So when I finally did wake up from this dream, I had made up my mind that if and when my Mom's family does ever have another reunion, that I sure as hell was not going to attend because I was just so mad and upset that none of my cousins or others would even speak to me but where blaming me for everything under the sun that went wrong!

Now, your turn. Tell me about some dream you've ever had that was really weird and all cockamamie!

I'm going back to bed so I can rest up now from walking in those damned spike heels!