Crazy Antics and Dreams

The Clintons and Mom's Kitchen

On the evening of September 14, 1996, I was pleased that there weren't any black and yellow snakes slithering through this dream. However, I did dream that: I lived in a different home and Bill and Hillary Clinton came to visit. Well, maybe I did dream of snakes! I remember explaining to them what being unemployed is like. I then explained that I'm not a Democrat and would not vote for them. I then found myself in my Mom's kitchen where she is showing me a plant trellis that she put above her kitchen sink . . ..

High School and Snakes

This is a weird dream from the night of September 12, 1996: I was back in high school while I already had my associate's degree. My best friend and I were fixing the new paper for the copy machine. The really gross part of this dream was that I had a snake in my sinuses! When I was able to remove the snake, it was black and bright yellow. Fortunately, the alarm clock beeped and I woke.

Vicious Dogs and Russians

This is a dream from September 7, 1996: I was awake all night and there was a vicious dog that tried to break through the back door at my parent's home. I struggled to keep the door and was eventually able to prevent the dog from coming into the house. After deterring the dog from coming into the house, I found myself wandering through the neighborhood that I lived in during my childhood. There were several annoying men that I tried to avoid. These unpleasant men had heavy Russian accents and they were drinking. I visited several of my friend's homes, but I have no idea what happened to the men. The next place I seemed to be in was a multilevel parking garage in the downtown area listening to a church choir . . ..

Volleyball Poles and P.E. in High School

While I was in high school, my Catholic girl’s school didn’t have a gymnasium for our Physical Education classes. So there I was in all of my long-legged adolescent awkwardness running laps on an asphalt parking lot. There were permanently installed volleyball poles, potholes, and gravel scattered around this parking lot. The volleyball poles had a diameter of about six inches and were seven feet tall. After running our laps, my fellow classmates stood around talking as we cooled off. When the coach yelled for us to go indoors, the small group of girls that I was with parted like well-trained athletes and ran past the volleyball pole. That is, all of the girls except me! I had a mere moment to put my hands up before hitting the pole. Since I was not one of the above-mentioned athletes, I fell square on my butt! This memorable event resulted in a badly sprained wrist and a very bruised ego.

Skinned Knees and Elbows

The majority of the photographs taken of me while I was "growing up" show me with either skinned knees, or bandages on my knees. Clumsiness is a talent that I’ve had since I first learned to walk. My numerous "boo-boos" were received while learning to roller-skate, ride a bike, and the most difficult of all of these, walk a straight line!

Car Trip without Air-Conditioning

Another hot summer memory is when I was about thirteen, or so, we took a family trip from south Texas to Arkansas. Just as with our parish Church, our home and cars were not air-conditioned either. My family made a vacation car trip in our best auto during the heat of summer without the luxury of air-conditioning or a radio. So there we were three adults in the front seat and four kids in the backseat of a two-door mid-1950’s sedan. In addition to our luggage, we also carried a large ice chest filled with sandwiches and canned sodas. While we were accustomed to the absence of air-conditioning, the trip progressed well and I have numerous memories of the fun we had on that vacation.

Singing Off-key

When God handed out talents, I must have been in another room when singing on key was the gift of the day! I have never been able to carry a tune in a bucket even if I put a lid on it! Such being said, I had to audition to be in the fifth grade Church choir. The only reason the nun playing the organ and the one directing the choir allowed me to be in the choir was that everyone in the class had always been included in the class choir. Even now, I like to sing along during Mass. The way I see it is that God gave me this voice so He must want to here it. Where else to sing out loud?

Open Windows on Hot Nights

This tale is not one of those times. Sometime during the summer of my fourteenth year, I was FEARLESS! I would sleep with the blinds pulled to the top of the window and the two casement windows cranked open wide. Since it was a very hot and humid summer, I also moved my bed alongside of the window and put my pillow on the windowsill to catch every breath of a breeze that might float through my windows.

One evening that summer, I was sleeping soundly when I began to awaken with the sensation that someone was staring at me. While I kept my eyes closed tightly, I remained motionless contemplating what I should do. Ultimately, I decided that I would open my eyes and scream if someone was really standing outside my window. Slowly I opened my eyes wide, screamed loudly and proceeded to fall out of my twin-sized bed. Staring back at me was the ghostly-white vision of our neighbor’s white Spitz dog! The dog knew me since I had often played with it and was fond of the dog. I think the dog’s name was Snowball and it had its front paws on the windowsill and was happily wagging its tail. My parents were startled by the noise I had made, but thought the entire episode was very funny. So much for bravery!

Speaking of not having air-conditioning in our home, during the summers we opened all of our windows day and night. While our doors were locked at night, the windows were left wide-open. During my childhood, I went through periods of bravery as well as profound cowardice. On occasions following either a very scary movie or a prowler/peeping tom in the neighborhood, I could be very afraid of sleeping next to an open window. These are the times that I would spend the night sweltering in my bed with the window shut and locked. Needless to say, I also would have the window blinds closed too.