Wamego Wizard of Oz

Wamego is really big into "Wizard of Oz", often the summer play at the Columbian Theatre has many students involved in the production (http://www.ozmuseum.com/ and
http://www.columbiantheatre.com/). A friend works in the cool Oz Museum by the Theatre and Cardman is working there too...but I saw this online and it just cracked me up...psycho glitter b***...is just too much!

Personal Jesus

What a man.

Writing on the Wall...

Wikipedia says the phrase suggests a portent of doom or misfortune...

Neglecting my blogging abilities, I spent this gorgeous weekend entirely outside...yeah! sunshine, tans, and yard work! My huge hedges were trimmed back with a pruner since I failed to do that last Fall and now had about 3 truckloads to haul away. I mowed and watered my tomatoes/pepper/lettuce/zucchini and noticed that I'll have cherries and apricots after all and the raspberries have brambled all over the place. A tiny sprig of rose bush has grown sprays well over a foot in length and hopefully will extend over the shed in the back yard. The iris are opening and I saw the first Mayapple flower I have ever seen and the Jack-in-the-Pulpit has a twin this year!
Oh--breathe-- what lovely floral fragrances....now dissolve that thought.....

All went well and good until Sunday evening when Brigham brought the phone outdoors.... there was no one on the line. “Who was it?” I demanded...”Did they say they wanted Ms. Diederich (uggh-salesperson) or my FIRST name?”
“First.” said my son—he's such a big talker. He went back to Facebooking or couch-potatoing or biting off his toenails or some such activity while I hit my cell phone button out of curiosity.

The guy on the other end of the phone immediately apologized when I asked if someone had dialed this number...he said his buddy had just taken his cell phone into the bathroom.... “Oh my God—are you in Junction City right now?” I asked. He told me he was from Columbia Missouri, but yeah, he was in JC with some friends. He said his friend had found a phone number on the bathroom wall....

(Jesus M F Christ, I think...either in my head or outloud or who cares at the given moment!) Junction City is a large town of bad reputation where most of the soldiers from Ft. Riley hang out. It is said to have strip clubs, prostitutes, stabbings, rapes, and all kinds of activities of ill-repute!

I have never been there.

I told the guy that I didn't live anywhere near that town and I'd gotten a similar phone call before and that I was a teacher... etc. He seemed somewhat taken aback then and didn't seem inebriated at all and was perfectly fine with going back into the bathroom stall when I asked him to read exactly what it said...

“You go--She''ll blow” followed by my name and number. (Wow, what a poet...that's shorter than ee cummings...)

He apologized for his friend and I got off the phone.

Previously, I had been awakened at 3:00am by someone so drunk I could only make out the words “hookin up”.

Again, out of curiosity (no, don't say the cat thing here!), I dialed that number back the next day at noon, whereupon I was told by a sleepy guy that he didn't remember calling anyone.... 10 minutes later the young soldier called me back...same story as above—got my number off some JC cigar bar bathroom stall. He was apologetic too-- especially when I told him that 'I had kids older than he was-probably!' His friends also got on the phone to apologize and claim he was just sooo drunk.... “yes ma'am, no ma'am...Someone really needs to erase it, ma'am” etc.

While I found the situations somehow entertaining in my dull and boring life-- “giggle: Brigham, your mom is FAMOUS!” (to which he responds “Whore!!!”), it is also aggravating and potentially scary. Luckily nothing has happened beyond the phone calls... and I am pretty sure I can credit Stalkerman with that demeaning little poem.

On line information states that writing in men's rooms is generally excitement over a new-found love, but other than 'I love so & so', other messages usually tend to be more focused on sex or revenge. Well, amen for that—I know all about many types of vindictive behaviors now! Someday I will write about Stalkerman, but suffice it to say that I have a pistol down the back of my shorts.

Afterthought....So, men REALLY call phone numbers on bathroom walls? Huh.

Kid's Rock or Kid Rock!!

Inappropriate yes, but it IS a catchy tune...!

Trash

So late already, and tired...I can hear the darling little owls outside, but no one is here to believe me.
Nearly all of my t-shirts sold at the Regional Track Meet tonight, so that made me smile and we made no mistakes in picking/timing all the kids in their races--quite awesome, since my stomach has been turning over for weeks about THAT! I didn't cry either, not having a kid at the meet. It seemed so weird and uneventful.
Oh well. Speaking of t-shirts, Cardman unexpectedly gave me a present this week... a cool Thai tee. I told my students it said, "Bow Down to the Master" instead of coca-cola like it really said--I fooled a handful of them! After getting the tee, I was thinking how much I like foreign things...like bottle caps (or what most people would view as TRASH). I had some saved from Guatemala and strung them onto an ankle bracelet. I have some baggies of them from Bailey's too and will have to use more of them in a project. I remember how brightly a "landshark" cap showed up in the shallows on the beach...and the Pacifico too...I've even 'shingled' a birdhouse I made with them. So, any travelers that I know will be asked to bring me a FREE present--pick me up a cool bottle cap!
I almost forgot another 'found' item that was the coolest ever:
Bailey and I were in the jungle and went off the beaten path to explore a leaf that was enormously huge--about 6'x6' or more...It was then that I found these weird things on the forest floor, one of which was broken open, exposing a brilliant golden orange mush. Naturally, we stuck our fingers in it and licked them and since it was oddly delicious, we snuck them into my backpack and left the area. Later, we were told that they were expensive 'red banana'; I ate one for breakfast every day after that. So good! I also found some weird lumpy objects on a beautiful tree--we examined the seeds and licked sticky fingers, which made Nate shake his head--we were going to poison ourselves and die or something... but it turned out to be tamarind. Yum!

Television Terror

A post for Bailey....who used to cry at this Sesame Street "Letter U" song...scared her to death...!
What else brought tears? Helium balloons, clowns at the 4th of July Parade, pantyhose (my fault!), the Wolfenstein computer game (thanx Tegan), and Fievel, the American Tail... oops...movie Legends of the Fall--nearly forgot that it ruined her whole weekend! Sorry Hon! grin

Saint Epitome of Tacky

I ordered an art shirt from Threadless Tues and received it today! I was excited to see a Botticelli; use the seashell image in most paintings and sometimes emulate the faces--either him, Perugino, or Raphael. I'd painted a pic of a Saint which turned out beautifully; the title referred to the embellishments varnished down under layers of colorful oil flowers, patterns representing Klimt, rhinestones, and gold doilies and fine lace that I'd cut up. It sounds tacky but was so cool...it was hung in the Strecker-Nelson and actually SOLD!
I felt a pang of sadness when I got the call; when I make something I become part of it and want to keep my things forever--mine, all mine! and because it was a painting that my mother actually liked (most items she views as....odd?); It would have been her Christmas present. Maybe.
I opened the check and had a slight heart attack. Ron Perlman. I immediately thought of the movie "The Name of the Rose", I adore it (a movie about books)--Ron Perlman is so hideous. The whole thing is intriguing with Sean Connery and Christian Slater...but this Ron Perlman was from Chicago. Ahhhh. Still, it was a thrill that someone else enjoyed it too...