Sunday Stealing

Welcome back to Sunday Stealing. Sunday Stealing originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme. Let's go!

Today we ripped this meme off a blogger known as Starrlight from the blog Here Comes the Storm...In the Form of a Girl. She explains that she "Had this sent to me last night and now I have to share. Ah the Vedder." We really have no idea who she stole it from. But, it was probably stolen there as well. So, of course, that will be as far as we go. Tracing back our theft's thieves might take some time. Link back to us at Sunday Stealing!
Cheers to all us thieves!
Sunday Stealing: The Starrlight Meme

1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth? Ice cube.
2. Where was your profile picture taken? There isn't a photo on my profile.
3. Can you play Guitar Hero? I can, but I choose not to. I don't need to get addicted to another time sucker.
4. Name someone who made you laugh today. What was it about? Our son. He was goofing it up while I was trying to take his Homecoming photo.
5. How late did you stay up last night and why? Went to bed after Craig Ferguson. Normally I'm up later, but I got up early on Friday and was tired.
6. If you could move somewhere else where would you and why? Well if money was no object, how about Hawaii? Because it's gorgeous there!
7. Ever been kissed under fireworks? Yes. When we first moved to the burbs we got to the fireworks show late and had to sit in the car. I opened the sunroof and kissed my partner as the fireworks started. I'm such a romantic! Lol!
8. Which of your friends lives closest to you? All of them.
9. Do you believe ex's can be friends? With benefits? Hell to the no!
10. Do you like Dr. Pepper? Sure.
11. When was the last time you cried really hard? Really hard as opposed to just sniveling? Sniveling is highly underrated.
12. Who took your profile picture? Hello? I don't have a picture on my profile. It's my widget that Harriet made for me.
13. Who was the last person you took a picture of? Our son. Homecoming photo.
14. Was yesterday better than today? Why? No. I got to spend more time with Anastasia yesterday. So yesterday was better. And I had to get up even earlier today than yesterday to take our daughter for blood work.
15. Can you live a day without TV? Sure.
16. Are you upset about anything now? Always upset about finances.
17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? Anything worth having, is worth it.
18. Are you a bad influence? I can be, but it's been awhile. Lol!
19. Night out or night in? Always night in, unless you know a babysitter.
20. What items could you not go without during the day? My meds and seeing my family.
21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital? Anastasia. A few weeks ago when she was having that funky virus.
22. What does the last text message in your inbox say? My cellphone sucks and it doesn't seem to save messages.
23. How do you feel about your life right now? Frustrated. I'm tired of worried about finances and not getting the child support that is due me and watching my ex live it up.
24. Do you hate anyone? I try not to. I'm hoping Karma takes care of them soon. Very soon!
25. If we were to look in your Facebook inbox, what would we find? Lots of crap. What do I care what games other people played or quizzes they took? I don't. Why can't you filter out that crap? All I want to see is people's typed messages, not those dumb game and quiz posts.
26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass? Yes. I only take what my doc prescribes. :D
27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before? What dream world do you live in?
28. What song is stuck in your head? Poker Face. Thanks SNL. Not!
29. Someone knocks on your window at 2 a.m., whom do you want it to be? Family.
30. Do you (or did you) want to have grandkids before you’re 50? Hell to the no! I'm 48, my kids are too young to be having babies.
31. Tell us your Saturday night. Dropped our son off for the Homecoming dance. Made Chicken Enchiladas for a very late dinner. Watching SNL.
32. Do you think too much or too little? Way to much.
33. Do you smile a lot? Not enough.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

September Top Commenter Winners!

Wow! Auntie E left everyone in the dust this month. Surprisingly Harriet (*cough* comment whore) wasn't even in the top 5. Harriet, was it something I said?

Here are the results:

1st Place - Auntie E @ At Home With Auntie E 1000 Entrecard Credits.
2nd Place - Stacey @ All Stace, All The Time 750 Entrecard Credits.
3rd Place - Lin @ Duck and Wheel With String 500 Entrecard Credits.

Congratulations to the winners! Entrecard Credits will be in your accounts shortly.

Just a reminder to everyone that my Top Commenter Contest will be running in October, so now is your chance to stake out your spot at the counter or grab a booth.

Also, don't forget about I Am Harriet's October Comment Challenge. How about it, are you up to the challenge? I'm in!



Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

They Lost!

Chicago loses in the first round. Only 18 votes out of 94? Can you believe it? Chicago Out After First Round of Voting - Chicago Tribune.

Woo hoo! Yes, we will be celebrating the loss at our house. We've gone back to news free, because you know they are going to days of analysis of why we didn't get it, but I can't wait to see Mayor Daley's reaction. You know he's going to have say something ridiculous.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

The Reunion...

(Sorry, I forgot to hit "Publish" last night. I was wondering why I had no comments. Lol!)
My sister was to watch our kids while we went to the reunion. All day Saturday our daughter was taking calls from her about how her husband wasn’t feeling well, etc. She still agreed to watch them. We told her to come by at 4pm and take the kids swimming and that we would be leaving around 6pm. We assumed that made it clear that they shouldn’t come back to the room until after 6pm. Ummm, not so much. We told her 4pm so that Anastasia and I could have some...adult time before getting ready. Thank heaven Anastasia threw the slide bolt on the door because about 20 minutes after they left, they came back, but the slide bolt prevented them from walking in on us. We told them again to come back after 6pm. Sheesh! (Ok, stop laughing!)

After we stopped laughing we got ready which meant that Anastasia had to try on the 2 outfits that she brought and pick one. Then put on the earrings, necklace and make-up that she bought for the event. Did I mention Anastasia looked hawt? She looked hawt!

We walked into the restaurant and one of the reunion coordinators instantly, cheerfully called me by name. I don’t know if she knew it was me because I arrived with a woman, (my reservation included Anastasia’s name) or if it was because she recognized me from my senior picture (they had senior pictures of all those attending glued on poster boards along the wall in the banquet hall).

I knew many people by name, but didn’t ‘know them, know them’, know what I mean? I mean, I knew who they were, but they probably didn’t know me because we never interacted in school. A few women walked up and said hi. Each time I immediately introduced Anastasia as my partner and we exchanged family stories. Everyone was always nice and polite. After awhile Anastasia went out for a smoke. Surprisingly the restaurant where the reunion was held was smoke free, so all the smokers congregated at the front entrance. When Anastasia came back she told me I was famous outside with the smokers! She said that some women had asked who she was and she said she wasn’t anyone important. They laughed and said ‘no really, who are you here with?’ and Anastasia replied that she was with her partner, Lola. Anastasia said one of them hollered “LOLA ROCKS!” and another said “we love Lola!” and said to be sure to tell me that she answered one of the questions in the Reunion Booklet with “I kissed a girl and I like it”. When I asked Anastasia who these women were, she said she didn’t catch their names! I kept telling her to scan the room and point out who they were, but she didn’t see them. Then suddenly TB came running up to me and hollered “LOLA!” and gave me the biggest hug! TB and I were friends for a bit in grade school and coincidentally, she was the one that told Anastasia about the Reunion Booklet. That hug alone made the trip worthwhile. It was like that hug meant 'I know what a big decision it was for you to be here and I'm glad you came'. It was awesome!

Anastasia kept asking if there wasn’t anyone else I wanted to talk to, because I was kind of sitting there and people watching. There wasn’t really, so Anastasia just kept sending me up to the bar (kind of a forced way to mingle, I’m not a mingler). The people I ran into at the bar didn’t know me anyway, but in theory, it was a good plan. Lol! Near 9pm the crowd was about as thick as it got, maybe 60-70 people, and the room had divided into cliques. Kind of a small gathering, since the graduating class was 400 students and most people brought a guest.

Finally at 10pm we called it a night and headed out to Walker’s Pint, a lesbian bar in Milwaukee. If going to a 30 year high school reunion made us feel old, stepping into this bar was just the confirmation. It was a bar full of 20-somethings, drunker than all get out, singing at the top of their lungs to every song the DJ played, even Johnny Cash classics. We had one drink and headed back to pick up the kids, who were by that time at my sisters house. (More of her husband’s illness drama.) We topped the night off by watching Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) back at the hotel.

If you asked Anastasia, she’d probably say she was kind of puzzled why I didn’t talk to more people. As it turned out, it was mostly the popular kids who attended and they quickly gathered into their cliques just like back in high school. Some of the more outgoing ones made the rounds to everyone to say hello, but most of the popular kids stuck to their own kind. It was still interesting to see everyone. It was amazing how many I could recognize without looking at the name tags. I guess some people’s faces don’t change much as they age.

The people watching was pretty much just watching the people from the old high school cliques begin to gravitate towards each other. The other thing was looking at the attire. Of course there were plenty of women who were dressed to impress. Fresh hairstyles and hair colors, new outfits. There were some guys who thought that wearing a motorcycle t-shirt, the one without the holes, and a pair of jeans was suitable. Another guy showed up in one of those not very flattering bicycle t-shirts with mesh shorts and sandals. There were a few women who also just seemed to wear whatever they’d wear to the bar on a Saturday night. There was even one guy who just sat in the parking lot on his Harley, apparently hoping it was a chick magnet or something.

I recognized several other loners who came without their significant others. One of them, CB, who I also didn’t really know, but knew who she was, got a table at the front by the buffet line, front and center, where she could see everyone who walked in. She sat quietly with her Reunion Booklet, thoroughly reading it, kind of holding court until someone occasionally stopped by her table to say hello. CB mostly sat by herself. Around 8:30pm apparently she had seen enough, quietly got up, stopped to look at the senior pictures on the wall and left. Another girl, DK, again, I didn’t know her, but knew who she was, seemed to go from table to table and sat, but didn’t talk to anyone. Anastasia thought that maybe she was waiting for someone else to start the conversation when DK sat at our table, so Anastasia introduced herself, but all that elicited from DK was the briefest of introductions, and that was it.

Going to my reunion to me wasn’t really about seeing old classmates. I mean, it would have been nice to see ones who actually knew me, but unfortunately not many of those attended. That was kind of disappointing. It was still kind of cool seeing everyone, even though I was still pretty invisible (except for being famous with the smokers outside, Lol!).To me, it was all about having the guts to be there, you know what I mean? I mean, here I was, one of the invisible kids, AND I’m a lesbian. It was all about having the balls to actually show up AND proudly introduce everyone I met to my partner Anastasia and just be there. It would have been so easy to find excuses not to go or to go and sheepishly introduce my partner as "my friend". The fact that I was one of the invisible kids, the fact that I’m now an out lesbian and only 1 person in attendance knew that (other than the reunion coordinators), and the fact that it was a long trip and quite an expense. I had more excuses than most of the people who didn’t bother to show up. But I showed up.

I was there.

I came...I saw...I rocked the reunion and we all had a great time in Milwaukee.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Getting there...

We meant to leave Friday by noon, but didn’t actually hit the road until after 1pm. Leave it to me to pack and do a security check at the last minute. Yes, I waited until the last possible minute to pack. I can pack in a matter of minutes. Anastasia has to lay out everything on the bed she is packing to insure that she doesn’t forget anything. (She waited until the last minute too.) The kids packed their clothes on their own before we got up and did an excellent job.

Anastasia insisted on driving. Arghhh! Sorry, but I’m a control freak and I love to drive. I am just not happy as a passenger, especially through all the nasty construction and lane closure nonsense on I294. Two sudden stops and she could tell I was freaking out. I didn’t say anything, as it wasn’t her fault. But I think she was also freaking out, being the driver. There was some funky alternate I94 route when we crossed the border that took us on Route 45. Anastasia was freaking out because she thought she shouldn’t have taken the alternate. I told her I was somewhat familiar with that highway, but I had to take out the GPS to confirm we were on the correct route. We were. After awhile, she pulled into a lot and we did a quick fire drill, changing places, doing a u-turn and heading back on our route with me as the driver.

We checked into our hotel and then headed out for dinner. We had a nice dinner at Omega. Anastasia marveled at the fact that she could smoke in the restaurant. (It’s illegal to smoke in bars and restaurants in Illinois.) She felt like a real rebel when she lit up after the salads. It was quite funny...she kept checking diners at other tables to be sure. We went back to the hotel and actually were all in bed by 10pm.

Saturday we had breakfast at George Webb and then I drove around town showing Anastasia and the kids points of interest. Boring points of interest, because there was absolutely nothing to do and no one to visit because my friend from the old neighborhood was out of town and my Aunts couldn’t fit us into their hectic retiree schedule. I filled Anastasia and the kids in on what used to be where, where I grew up, etc. The hotel we were staying at used to have a disco that my sister and our friends used to hang out at back in the day. Even though it’s been a little over 5 years since I’ve been back to Wisconsin, most streets were barely recognizable. So many businesses have changed hands or been bulldozed over and made into something else. Everywhere we went the roads were under construction. Apparently President Obama’s stimulus package was very nice to Wisconsin in terms of roadwork funds.

Leon's Frozen Custard was still open. Leon's is always a must stop when I go to Wisconsin. We stopped on the way out of town. Just as rich and delicious as ever. If you're ever in Milwaukee, Leon's is at 27th & Oklahoma.




We found the Italian grocery, Groppi’s, in Bay View was still open. Every trip back to Wisconsin I've checked on this place. They were closed for awhile, then only open on weekends. Now they are open 7 days a week. When I walked in, even though the place had been remodeled, the smell took me back in time. The smell of fresh ground Italian sausage filled the air. The deli case had more varieties of olives than I’ve ever seen, and the highly prized Mario’s homemade olive salad. We made a trip back on Sunday and filled a cooler with ice and got some of that olive salad and Italian sausage to bring back home. We had a wonderful pasta dinner with Italian sausage and olive salad on Sunday night that brought me back in time to when my Dad would stop off at Groppi's when he was in the neighborhood.

Please stop by tomorrow to read more about my weekend and the reunion.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Oprah's Touch

Below is a re-post of a post I did back in January. If you're new to my blog, enjoy. If not, sorry pallies, I'll be back to regular posting when I return from my little vacation.

Oprah's Touch/I Shook Hands With Oprah:
Oprah is in the news again. It seems another of her book club selections is a fraud. Is Oprah’s Golden Touch Tarnished? This is the third time she's been duped. Doesn't she have staffers to check on these books? What I don’t understand about these authors is, why is it necessary to be fraudulent? Can’t you tell a compelling story in a novel? Does it really have to be a memoir/biography in order to be inspirational and noteworthy? I don’t get it.

Anyway, this made me think of my Oprah story. And it is completely true. I was at a taping in October 1994 when Paul Reiser was promoting his book “Couplehood”. I was 7 months pregnant and bigger than a house and not terribly thrilled to be attending the taping. My husband (now ex-husband) had “surprised” me with tickets. Apparently my ex-husband had numerous conversations with one of Oprah’s assistant producers and somehow charmed her into the “Full Oprah Treatment”. What is the “Full Oprah Treatment” you ask? A limousine picks you up at the crack of dawn and drives you to Harpo Studios (and gives you a ride home after the taping). Did I mention I was 7 months pregnant and bigger than a house and he sprung this on me 10 minutes before the limo driver arrived? I had nothing to wear. Absolutely nothing. I think I ended up wearing the only blouse I had that fit and sweatpants. Sweatpants! I was mortified.

We arrived at Harpo Studios, went through the security line and were ushered into a large room with tables of fruits, bagels, bakery items, coffee and juice. The room was full of other couples. Cute perky couples, perfectly coiffed. Oprah staffers ran around the room with headsets on and clipboards in hand. The assistant producer assigned to us coached us and told us what to expect and told us to watch for our queue to go to the microphone and tell our story. Let’s just say I was less than thrilled that she was implying that I was going to talk ON CAMERA and tell some cockamamie story that apparently my ex-husband had used to get the “Full Oprah Treatment”. I was ready to kill him at that point.

After what seemed like an eternity, all of us were ushered into the studio and seated. More instructions were given.

Queue Oprah, she introduces Paul Reiser.
Queue cute perky couples with silly stories.
Queue more cute perky couples with silly stories.
Queue us!
Oh SHIT!
I get my pregnant ass out of my seat and walk over to the microphone, wondering what the HELL I am doing there. (Also wondering if I will be able to speak because the last time I was on a stage was in 4-H in a play in junior high and when I opened my mouth, nothing came out. All I can think of is that and the fact that I should have passed on the orange juice earlier, because now my pregnant ass had to use the bathroom.)
Queue commercial break.
Queue Oprah.
Oprah introduces a couple who were married for like 50 years.
Oprah closes the show.
They skipped us!
Hallelujah!

Oprah finished up, the taping ended and the audience filed out just past the stage area to shake hands with Oprah on camera. People in line were whispering that she did that so that no one could say that she promised them anything. Whatever. No big deal.

I shook hands with Oprah.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009