Things I've Learned Thursday

1) When I drive and get frustrated by another driver I'll say, "Move it, honey." I always call the other driver, honey. I didn't realize how often I "talk" to the drivers until Baby Boo asked, "Why you say honey, Momo?" I tried to explain to her that it was just a nice way of asking the other driver to move. (I don't think she bought that one for a minute!)

2) I've worn contacts since I was 12 and after losing my right lens, I'm back to wearing glasses. This is hard, really hard for me. I've always hated wearing glasses because my vision is pretty bad. What didn't help was the optical rep looking at my prescription and saying, "ooooo, not good. Not good at all! Oh, you've got such horrible vision." Thanks for making me feel better!

3) I made a bowl of popcorn for me and a bowl for the dogs. I even added seasoning to theirs because they won't eat it if it doesn't have butter on it. By the way, I found out, thanks to Ina, that dogs can have marshmallows. That's next on my things to try with them.

4) I've got mixed emotions about the orphans from Haiti being brought to the U.S. I'm sad for them because some of them may still have family there in Haiti. Others have siblings and could easily be separated, never to be together again. To be brought to a country where the culture is so very different from their own, after having gone through so much, I wonder just how devastating this will be for them. On one hand, I believe that it is not safe for them to stay in Haiti but on the other hand, how many moms and dads will be left there with nothing to live for if their children are gone?

5) Rainy days always meant hot chocolate and working puzzles when I was a kid. My mom made sure that music was always playing, whether it was our children's records or her Gospel albums. We would stay in our pjs all day and we never ran out of things to do.

6) I don't realize how often I use sayings when I'm talking. I will say, he just needs to "pee or get off the pot" or "If it ain't broke don't fix it" or "A hard head makes a soft behind." I picked the sayings up from my mom who picked them up from her mom. I laugh now when one of my daughters also uses one of those sayings.

7) When I get too old to see over the steering wheel or stay in my lane when driving, I hope and pray that my daughters will call DMV and ask them to take away my driver's license. I may be in denial but at least the roads will be safer.

8) Kids can eat dog food, a stale cookie found under a sofa cushion, a cracker that the dog has also taken a bite out of, food dropped on the ground with dust bunnies on it and they don't get sick!! Yet, the minute they get a runny nose, everyone in the house ends up in bed. (By the way, talking from past experience...we're all well at the moment.)

9) Speaking of what kids eat, my sister and I used to eat raw hotdogs, (thanks to our cousins that lived in the projects and showed us some of their ways of doing things), green walnuts (picked from the neighbor's tree), pickled pig feet and dried prunes covered in at least a teaspoon of salt. I'm totally surprised that our blood didn't shrivel up.

10) I feel most creative when it's raining. I wonder why?

What have you learned?

By the way, thank you for all of your wonderful comments on my story of "I" and "H". I had written their story a few years ago for a publication and some how, lost the copy of it. So, it did me well to re-tell the story.