Happy New Year’s Eve! Maybe if you’re trying to stay up late tonight, this will help. Orrrrr, it might put you to sleep. In which case, lo siento mucho.
Hubby: Oooh, you doing another photo dump post?
Me: I thought I’d sneak one in before the year was out. Why? You like these?
Hubby: I enjoy the randomness.
He knows my middle name.
Anywho, without further ado, random things that made me think of you. (Move over, Dr. Seuss.)
I’m just assuming there’s going to be a part 2 since I’ve saved so many random things to show you. Here I go, sort of backwards in time. First of all, did everyone get something like this in their mailbox?
Beloved Neighbor’s grandfather-in-law was a firefighter. His decommissioned 1952 fire truck has become a staple in our town’s annual Christmas parade.
Neighbor’s three sons were each able to choose one friend to join them on the float. Their youngest invited my Joe.
When I brought Joe, Neighbor asked if I’d like to ride on the float too.
“Really? Can I?”
“Sure. If there’s room, I don’t see why not.”
I immediately added “Ride in a parade” to my mental bucket list just so I could then cross it off.
I also added and crossed off, while I had the chance:
First, if you’re new here and don’t want to be lost, read this paragraph. If you’re old hat, feel free to skip along. The brief recap: I did Jiu-Jitsu for nearly a year and was In. Love. Then, in September 2022, when testing for my next belt, I injured my foot and ankle. Things got gnarly, and I spent some time in a wheelchair. I nearly went back this past June but busted my knee before I could. I somewhat convinced myself the universe was against me doing Jiu-Jitsu forevermore.
Then this happened…
I’m still on Gracie Jiu-Jitsu’s distribution list. So, imagine my excitement when I saw the announcement for a free two-hour self defense seminar. I dug my old gi from the back of my closet, pulling off the plastic cover, singing, “Awwwwwww,” like a heavenly chorus. I tossed the bag aside and held up my beloved uniform, saying, “BEHOLD!”
My daughter, witnessing this, laughed, shook her head, and pushed her glasses farther up her nose.
I signed myself and two of my girls up and spread the word to others. Only one person took me up on it. Any guesses?
Here’s a little how-to for your costume-construction needs. Follow these steps and you, too, can have a prize-winning costume with little effort on your part! [Warning: Results may vary for spouses.]
Step 1: Receive a text from Beloved Neighbor about a Halloween event in your town, which includes a costume contest at a brewery.
Step 2: Tell Hubby, I want this* costume. You have a week. Get moving.
*Rather than tell you what the costume is, I’ll show you pieces and see if you can figure it out.
Step 3: Lounge at home while Hubby makes multiple trips to Lowe’s. Upon his return, increase your music volume to drown out the obtrusive sounds of him sawing in the garage. (So rude.)
Step 4: With a few clicks, order his accompanying costume on Amazon. Dab the sweat from your brow after heroically completing this arduous task.
Mark frequently takes in the sites near him, (Who knew there were so many cool things to see in Wisconsin?) which makes me feel like a slacker for not doing the same near me.
I have kids, okay?!
So imagine my surprise when circumstances had us two towns over during a festival of sorts.
And where is this, you ask? More art to the rescue!
When combing through Diane’s recipes for my last post, I came across the most brilliant image.
A heavenly light shone upon my computer. My eyes widened in delight. A choir of angels sang. I had discovered:
Sensei keeps giving me zucchinis, right? And he loves chocolate. This was perfect. But it got even better. I was told Coral would be in town for her birthday weekend and intended to come to class.
I texted Mrs. Sensei.
Sensei keeps giving me zucchini from his garden. I’m out of oranges in exchange, so I have to dig into my chocolate stash to make up for it. (I think that’s all part of his diabolical plan.)
Several weeks ago, Neighbor texted several of us in the ‘hood, yo!
To which I responded…
From my BBBB (Beloved Birthday Blog Buddy) Ju-Lyn: Can’t wait to see what Birthday shenanigans you get up to this year😆🤩
Me: Oh, I will shenanigan like the wind, Ju-Lyn!
First of all, remember Snowball Man, whom I ran into another night The Band played? We exchanged emails, so I was able to invite him to BBBB. (This time, Betsy’s Birthday Band Bash. Keep up.) He wrote back:
You just made my day! Will make sure that day is clear and will wear body amour. I tore the muscle in my throwing arm unloading a 300 lb tub so I’ll have to throw left handed……………which should make it fair this time.
Then three days before the big night, he wrote:
I got rescheduled to work Saturday. Was going to go shopping all day for your present but now I’ll have to rush into Pic and Save and hope something is left on the blue light special table. Hopefully I’ll get there while there are still some tables (within throwing distance). Don’t want to miss you……….. with a snowball of course.
And he really did get me a gift. I was surprised and impressed.
Then I saw the envelope:
Recapping again: I got off track with my Tae Kwon Do belts when I busted my foot, ankle, and (later discovered) tibia at the end of September. Pretty much recovered, I got another belt (then only one behind my daughters) and was going to be fully caught up at the beginning of May except for tearing two ligaments and bruising two bone plates in my knee two days beforehand. (When I texted Sensei from urgent care telling him no belt testing for me, he didn’t believe me until I sent him a pic of my braced-up knee in a wheelchair.)
So, last week, when I finally FINALLY tested for red/black belt, it was kind of a big deal.
Some of you may recall that the pressure of testing tends to get to me a wee bit. For instance, Sensei has said not to do the forms too quickly because I want to show off that I know each move.
Yeah, so much for that. I moved like I was being chased by a ravenous lion and the only way to keep from being eaten was to distract him by my weird, confusing, albeit somewhat impressive he’s thinking, movements.
Another fun part was, though my girls were doing the forms with me, I knew full well I was the only one being watched, as I was the only one being tested. Normally, two people test at a time, and whenever I’ve messed up, I can tell myself, “Sensei was watching the other person at that particular moment.”
I’m not above lying to myself to get through these things.
My starting position was such that I wound up moving to mere feet from Sensei as I made my one and only major flub–probably because I was aware that he was Right. There.
Groan.
I seriously considered
Writing and Martial Arts 