Travelin' Treats

14. Favorite Treats When Traveling

I almost forgot to do today's prompt! But I'm getting it done in time...

When I was younger, I used to do a lot of traveling. One of my favorite things to eat when I was on a road trip was beef jerky. It is a good source of protein and chewy so it would keep me full and awake. The down side is that the jerky would get stuck in my teeth. But it is still delicious stuff.

If I was taking a plane, I preferred to just chew gum. Since I have issues with my ears, the pressure from the altitude would make my ears hurt a lot. I found that if I chew gum or something similar, it wouldn't hurt as much.

Generally, I'd only eat treats when I was traveling with other people. Then I'd share their treats. I am not a good traveling companion. I eat your stuff :)

Where I grew up

13. Describe Your Childhood Home

My father actually still lives in my childhood home so this one is quite easy!

I grew up in a Jubilee in the Highland Park section of Levittown, PA. The house has four bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. There is an attached garage and a good-sized fenced-in backyard. The front yard is perfectly sized for children to run around without having to play in the street.

Now that the technical details are done, here's the fun stuff!

In the backyard, we had a chestnut tree. (I believe my father has since removed it.) For those of you that don't know, chestnuts don't come in a ready-to-roast-on-an-open-fire state. Oh no. Chestnuts come in a spiky ready-to-kill state. You have to risk life and limb to open those suckers to get to the actual nut part. As a result, our backyard was frequently filled with the devil fruit. Running around in bare feet was an act of insanity. We had a Slip N' Slide for one whole summer before the damned things ruined it. Yeah. I hate chestnuts.

The front yard used to have a huge oak tree. My father had painted the trunk white, though I don't remember exactly why. I seem to recall something about bugs. Anyway, for a little while, we had a tree swing tied to it. It also played "Home Base" to many games of tag. This tree was removed many years ago due to disease. I mourned the loss of that tree. It was awesome. (Much better than the stupid chestnut tree.)

Despite having four bedrooms and only four members of the family, my younger sister and I frequently shared a room. When we were small, we shared the small room downstairs next to my parents' room. When we were older, we moved upstairs to share the larger bedroom. (While that room is awesomely huge, it has sloped walls. One can't stand up straight to lean on a wall...unless you are like three feet tall. It made furniture placement a pain.) At some point, I moved across the hall to the smaller upstairs bedroom. I don't have a lot of memories there so I don't think it lasted very long.

The house actually has not changed much in 30*cough* years. It is still filled with many funtastic 70s things like dark blue carpeting in the upstairs bedroom. I believe the kitchen cabinets are still avocado green. Maybe one day I can talk my father into updating the house a bit more. Then again, maybe pigs really will sprout wings and fly.

Who? Me?

12. Things I Always Do For Myself

I am a pretty dedicated mother and wife. There aren't a lot of things that I specifically do for myself. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the things my daughter and husband do. It's not like I'm being dragging along unwillingly. I just wouldn't categorize it as doing it "for me." But there are a few things I do....

• Get massages (though I wish this would happen more often)
• Listen to music
• Watch a couple of TV shows (Supernatural, The Originals, and a couple of crappy 'reality' shows like Diggers)
• Attempt to sleep more (this one is rarely accomplished)

I kinda prefer the things we do together as a family - watch funny YouTube videos, go driving around, or even just hanging out. I enjoy spending time with my family.

Foc-SQUIRREL!

11. When I Need To Focus I

Yeeeeah. I'm not so good at the focusing thing. I don't know that I have ADD but I do have a difficult time not multi-tasking. When I'm making jewelry, I'm usually watching TV too. When I'm sewing plushies, I'm listening to music. I'm not sure if I have a good reason for it. When I'm doing something that only requires my hands, another part of my body needs to be engaged as well.

That doesn't necessarily mean I am paying a lot of attention to the TV or the song. It's more like background noise. Too much quiet is creepy.

I will say that I don't turn anything else on when I am trying to read a book. I can't focus on the characters and story with something else going on. I guess that is the answer to the question. When I need to focus I read a book.

I feel like there should be an evil chortle here

10. If I Ruled The World

If I ruled the world, eh?

Well.

If I ruled the world, universal healthcare would be a real thing that works the way it is supposed to. (And, see, since I'm ruler, people don't get to bitch about it, which would then fuck everything up, because I would get to tape their mouths shut or whatever.)

If I ruled the world, people would get to take time off of work for sicknesses and family emergencies and just to spend some time with their kids for once and not have to worry if they still have a job to come back to when everything is better. Yes, people would still have to work but it wouldn't consume their entire lives. Work to live, don't live to work.

If I ruled the world, paparazzi would leave famous people alone when they aren't being "famous." Meaning there wouldn't be someone hiding in the tree outside Angelina Jolie's house to try to get a picture of any member of her family. The famous people should be the ones to decide how much of their personal lives we see, not some creepy guy with a camera.

If I ruled the world, the fine arts would never be in danger of losing funding. Children in elementary school would be required to take some sort of fine art class in school - painting, an instrument, drama classes, sculpting...whatever. After elementary school, the classes would be optional but still available.

If I ruled the world, equal would mean EQUAL. For everybody.

If I ruled the world, the mentally ill would be taken care of properly. (See universal healthcare above. Yes, this includes mental health.) Addicts would be able to get help to stop being addicts. (See universal healthcare above. Yes, this still includes mental health.) Veterans would get the help they need for whatever their problems are. (See universal healthcare above. Also see Equal means EQUAL. Veterans get this stuff too.) As a result, the homeless population would decrease.

If I ruled the world, people would not suck. They would be properly educated (get out of my schools, Creationism), properly fed (equal meaning equal means people get paid equally...therefore people could actually afford to buy good nutritious food for their families), and properly mannered (hm. maybe we'll add a Manners class to the elementary school curriculum as well).

There is probably so many other things I would do. But, of course, I don't rule the world. And that makes me sad.

Keep Calm

9. Keep Calm and ________.

DFTBA! (Don't Forget To Be Awesome!)

That is all I have. It's my favorite saying. (I'm not sure if he was the originator but John Green says it all the time in his videos.) And since I am up way too early for a Sunday because I have to go bridesmaid dress shopping with my sister, this is all you get for today. I hope I will be less tired tomorrow. Also, daylight saving time sucks.

Sleep would be nice.

8. How I Feel Today

Tired!

Our weekends this month are extremely packed. Today's schedule? My daughter has her bowling league every Saturday so that went from 9AM - 11AM. When I got home, I did the first load of dishes. While that was running, I got to take a mini-nap. Then we ran out to the mall with my husband. He couldn't find anything he wanted so we hit up Target. The dogs needed food, meaning a trip to Petco. A quick dinner then my daughter has to run off to school. The technology club she is a member of is running a bake sale at tonight's middle school play performance. (They are doing "Alice in Wonderland.") That is 6PM - 9PM. I think my husband and I are going grocery shopping while she is bake saleing.

Tomorrow will be filled with dresses. We have to find bridesmaids dresses for my sister's wedding in September. After the dress shopping, I have to take my daughter back to the bowling alley to pre-bowl her league game for next Saturday because that day is packed with events too.

I guess you can sleep when you're dead?

How I love games

7. Favorite Childhood Games/Tasks

Let's see...some favorites?

1. Red Light, Green Light 2. Red Rover (Hm, this is pretty much Red Light, Green Light, isn't it?) 3. Freeze Tag 4. Clue 5. Mall Madness ("Sale at the Chitchen Store!")

How about a list of my least favorite while we're at it?

1. Mouse Trap (too many pieces!) 2. Slip N' Slide (we had a chestnut tree that dropped these awful spiky things - the chestnuts are inside the awful spiky thing) 3. Monopoly (too long) 4. Simon (I can't remember that stuff!)

I can't think of any more. I used to really like this typing game that we had on our old Atari, Kids on Keys. (That was like 1983 or something.) Yes, I'm ancient. I know this. My mom and I also used to do some BASIC programming back in the day too. I don't remember a lot of it but I remember that we made a video game about vampires. Yeah, I was nerdy before nerdy was cool.

Ah! The Projects!

6. Projects I'm In The Middle Of

I'd like to point out that I didn't create these prompts. Therefore, I am not the one ending a sentence (fragment) with a preposition. Onto the list!

I actually don't think I am in the middle of any project. I have a lot of promised projects that I haven't started yet. I have a lot of jewelry pieces that I haven't started. I'll talk about those instead....

1. I promised my daughter I'd make her a new Catbug plushie. (The face on the first one didn't turn out very pretty.) 2. I have probably a dozen pendants ready for me to make into necklaces that I just haven't made. 3. I'm trying to finish reading Paper Towns by John Green. 4. I need to figure out how to make a nice lightbox so I can take pictures of my jewelry pieces for my Etsy Shop. (The first one I made fell apart.) 5. I'm waiting on some supplies to arrive so I can make more chainmaille jewelry. (I'm making slave bracelets next.)

So, yeah. Once I start a project, I'm pretty good with following it through to the end. My big problem is starting. Procrastination and a packed schedule are my downfalls. I need more free hours in a day.

OTP!

5. Favorite Fictional Couples

I don't usually "ship" characters. And, most of the time, I barely think about the couples. I'm too busy getting into the actual story. Here are a few I thought up off the top of my head. It would take me forever to come up with a better list.

Hazel & Augustus - The Fault in Our Stars Castiel & Meg - Supernatural Batman & Catwoman Lana & Archer - Archer Caroline & Klaus - The Vampire Diaries