Are you there, God? Its me, Margaret.

Do you ever find yourself falling prey to the illogical 'must be magic' type of explanation for events that happen in your life? Like, 'We all prayed for her and she got better. God answers prayers.' or, 'Why are all of these bad things happening to me? God must be punishing me for lying about being sick on Monday.'

Well, here's mine.
I sold my dog crate on Craigslist the other day (since my dog is so perfect he doesn't need one :))
I was charging $50. The woman buying it said she could come right after her church rehearsal. She stops by, hands me the money, and I help her carry the crate out to the car. When she leaves, I take the money out of my pocket and count it.

Twenty... Fourty... Five.... thats it.

$45.

So, $5 is not a big deal, and if she had asked me to take $45 for it I would have agreed. However, to just try to sneak me the wrong amount of money is irritating and underhanded, but more annoying was the fact that she is supposedly all 'churchy' and yet lowered herself to try to rip me off for $5! So, I went to bed that night shaking my head about people's hypocrisy.

The next morning, at 9am, after all of the high school, middle school, elementary school students, and all of the neighbors going to work had walked through the parking lot of my townhouse complex, I head out to go to work. What do I see sitting in the leaves on the ground right where the woman's car had been parked the night before?

A $5 bill that she had evidentally dropped in her haste to be prepared with the money when she came to my door.

The good news is, her good name is redeemed. The better news is, I am forced to curb my natural tendencies to think the worst of people (and yet I still forgive them for it unless they are totally evil, I mean we are all only human).

But, that little nagging peice of me passed on from my ancestors who attributed the seasons, the weather, the tides, the growth of plants, to 'the gods' did rear its head a bit - I mean, what are the chances that no one picked up a $5 bill lying there plain as day ? What are the chances that I would come out and see it rather then just single-mindedly walking straight to my car without looking around?

Alas, logic wins. But there was a moment!

Seattle Photoblog: Even the cats are grunge

workin in wa

Sarah Silverman?

Apparantly all of Cody's friends think I look like Sarah Silverman. True or false?

P.S. I *don't* like pee.

halloween

Halloween came and went, for the first time in years I didn’t go to Fells Point, or a Halloween Party, or anything. Blame it on a Wednesday holiday, if you like, but I call it getting old. Anyway, I still did other Halloween stuff. The kids and I went to the Pumpkin patch, my favorite fall activity involving a hay ride, orange pumpkins dotting the countryside connected by winding green vines (way better then picking a pumpkin from a bin at the grocery store!) There were goats, pigs, the ugliest cows ever, and … some kind of a yak thing that looked like a creature from the Neverending Story. We bought apple cider, blueberry bread, fresh fresh delicious apples, and some lumpy warty squashes. Fun! I love the fall.


Until this year, I’ve been able to keep the pumpkins I buy pretty small by telling the kids they can only pick a pumpkin they can carry. This year, though, Jake picked a giant one and just powered through it, barely able to lift it, stumbling under its weight on the way back to the wagon. “Are you sure you don’t want this lighter pumpkin?” “no…*grunt*…. Its…OK…..I got it…..*grunt*…..”


We carved the pumpkins and, sadly, the kids barely needed my help this time. They’re growing up! My aunt the other day said, pretty soon I won’t see them much at all, it will just be ‘Hi mom, bye mom.’ I told her, ‘that’s ok, I’ll just make a couple more.’ Hehe….heh…anyway..
Jake wanted to be SLASH for Halloween. How does my 9 yr old even know who Slash is?! At school, none of the kids knew who he was. Some guessed Ozzie Osbourne. But when he went trick or treating, all of the adults answering the doors knew who he was and thought it was awesome. Haha. Across the street, some neighbors were putting on a puppet show about Jesus. Apparantly in my neighborhood there are a bunch of cool people who regularly hang out outside and watch movies projected on the side of the building! Maybe one day I’ll stop being a recluse and meet them.

The Adventures of an East-Coast Snob in Seattle

I'm going to Seattle this weekend for a conference, so in honor of that, here is a comic about what I can expect. Enjoy

(stolen from Moira's myspace)