A Revelation Upon My Return To Blogging: Snoopy Is My Spirit Animal

“My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?”

~ Snoopy

I’m back.  And ready to challenge myself by continuing on with this blog, The Spectacled Bean. There were moments, while I was off in the real world doing holiday things, when I wondered if I’d return.

So easy to let this all go.

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But then my spirit animal, Snoopy, turned up among the Christmas tree decorations which we keep in boxes in the basement– and I realized that I’d missed having him around in my home office.

As inspiration. Motivation. And protection.

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Thus it came to be that the Snoop-ster and his ever faithful friend, Woodstock, once again found themselves sitting on this funky old chair which adds color to my home office.  And it is from this vantage point that Snoopy has my back once again.

Which, as you can imagine, makes me happy.  🙂

Like A Memorable Episode of M*A*S*H, I’m Bugging Out Until 2015

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Remember that M*A*S*H episode in which the 4077th bugs out?  And each character’s true nuttiness is revealed by what they hold dear as the camp is forced to move elsewhere?

Of course you do.  It’s a classic.

Well, gentle readers, looking at my schedule and commitments for the next 2 months I’ve come to realize that I’m going to be on the verge of quiet hysteria busy with decorating & dinners & shopping & parties & travel & events & gifts.

Too busy.  For an introvert like me.  [Please refer to the chart.]

Considering that I keep this blog just for the heck of it, I’ve decided to take a blogging break.  To wit, I’m going to bug out and pretend to be a holiday-obsessed, Christmas-music-loving, party girl who adores all the glitz, booze and calories associated with this time of year remain calm-ish.

Happy Happy Joy Joy, everyone.  I’ll see you next year.

I’m Not Obsessed With Logic But…

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I’ve no doubt that some people have wondered the above about me.  [For the record, I tie my shoelaces all by myself.]  We all have our moments, don’t we?  

Uh huh.

So it is with the foregoing in mind that I tell you the gist of a conversation that I had with a casual acquaintance.  It’s a conversation that didn’t make sense to me, but then I was having one of my logical days while my casual acquaintance wasn’t. 

Oh well.

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ACQUAINTANCE:  Congrats on your success.  I see that you’ve accomplished something.

MOI:  Thank you.

ACQUAINTANCE:  Did you do something different this time that contributed to your success?

MOI:  Yes.  {I explain how I did what I did.}

ACQUAINTANCE:  {Acquaintance asks 2 or 3 clarifying questions.}  Wow, so you did something entirely new?

MOI:  Yes I did.

ACQUAINTANCE:  WELL THAT WON’T WORK.  YOU CAN’T DO IT THAT WAY.  YOU’LL FAIL.

MOI:  Huh?!  But you just said…

ACQUAINTANCE:  {Lots of explanation about how what I did will never work and how wrong I was to even try.}

MOI:  Well, thanks for telling me this.

ACQUAINTANCE:  Oh sure.  Just trying to help.

MOI:  Uh huh.

~ The End ~

[Source for the above image is anyone’s guess.  I found it on FB.  I’ve seen it on Pinterest, stumbled over it on many blogs, but have been unable to find its original source.]

Get Out The Windex, It’s Time To Vote

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{ Source: WordPress.com News }

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During the 18 years that we’ve lived in this area we’ve voted at six different locations:

  • the smoky VFW Hall;
  • the cavernous golf course/convention center;
  • the cheerful Methodist church;
  • the crowded elementary school;
  • the difficult to get into and out of community church;  and now
  • the Greek Orthodox church.

Of all the locations, this Greek Orthodox church is the best one because it’s slightly off of a busy street, has lots of parking and the actual voting area is a few steps inside the door.  The Greeks do voting well.

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But the thing about this voting location, which has absolutely nothing to do with the voting itself but I’ll tell you about it anyhow, is that Z-D comes from a family with a Greek heritage.

And our well-mannered, kind Mr. Bean can do a wicked, dead-on impression of his Great Uncle, who disapproved of everything and everyone.  Great Uncle was not a happy person with a generous soul, unlike his nephew.

So as you can imagine, this impression, which Z-D trots out two times a year, gets me laughing.  Every time.

And always leads to one of us quoting a movie that is best known for its references to Windex, but also explains Zen-Den’s family so well. A movie in which I am the WASP to his Greekinicity. A movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding which gives us the following wonderful lines.

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Aunt Voula: What do you mean he don’t eat no meat?

[the entire room stops, in shock]

Aunt Voula: Oh, that’s okay. I make lamb.